Evaluating your Sources

Once you have found the sources for your assignments, it's important to evaluate them to see if they are reliable and helpful! Let's go through how to do this!

To evaluate a source, we're going to use the CRAAP test.

Currency - how up to date is the information? Try and look for information that is as up to date as possible. Remember, processes and information can change over time so it's important the source is up to date.

Relevance - How important is the information you've gathered? Is the information useful and does it answer the question you had in your mind?

Authority - Where has this information come from? Who has written the information? Is the person who has written this information qualified to write on this topic? Is the author from a university, a non-profit organisation or a company?

Accuracy - Can this information be trusted? To test this, try and think of information you may already have on this topic, does it match with the information on this website? If it doesn't, it may not be entirely accurate, and you should try and choose another source.

Purpose - Why does this information exist? Is the purpose to inform people on the topic, to entertain, or persuade?

Can you spot any political, cultural, religious, institutional or personal biases that are clearly stated on the page, this may influence the information they write.

If you are unsure about how useful the source is, please speak to a professional to get the source checked. This can be a member of your Learning Centre team, or your tutor!

Need help researching your assignments? Click here to create a help ticket.