Research Guides: ENGWR 300 (Van Zanten): Choosing Websites on the Open Web

Choosing Websites on the Open Web

CRAP Text For Evaluating Websites

More Thoughts on Evaluating Websites

Think hard about what you find on the open web (what you track down through Google). Who wrote it? Why? Is the website up to date? Does the information measure up to what you are finding in books and articles? Use the lists below for ideas on how to evaluate this information for college research.

Evaluating Resources - U.C. Berekley Library
The questions on this page should help you explain why a particular source is a good fit for your research project.
Evaluating Sources from Owl Purdue Online Writing Lab
Evaluating sources of information is an important step in research. This site shows how to evaluate citations, Internet sources, and print vs. Internet.
Misinformation, Disinformation, and Fact-Checking
The term "fake news" has become a catch-all for all different kinds of news that promote false information, intentionally mislead readers, manipulate our emotions, and provide affirmation to our existing viewpoints and biases.To complicate things further, these days it's common for people to label news that disagrees with their own viewpoints as fake, without further investigating or verifying the information being presented. So you might hear that a news article is fake or that a news source is fake, even when it's reliable. When in doubt, fact-check for yourself (going through this guide will help!) and/or ask a librarian.

How Wikipedia Works

This video describes how Wikipedia works as an information resource. It offers advice on how college students can use Wikipedia, as well as why they will want to dig deeper.