Types of Sources
The most credible type of source for academic research is ______
Scholarly article or Academic Journal
“C” in the CRAAP test stands for
Currency (how recent/up-to-date the information is)
You find a shocking statistic in a blog post. What should you do before using it in your paper?
Trace it back to the original source
A ______ is the formal way to give credit to the source of information.
citation
If you aren’t sure whether you can use a source, the best person to ask is your ______.
Professor!
A personal blog is most useful for including ______ in your paper.
Opinions, experiences, or perspectives
What does “authority” mean in the CRAAP test?
The author’s credentials and qualifications
What is one method you can use to check if a source is credible?
Use the CRAAP test (Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, Purpose).
A list of all the sources you used in your paper is called a ______.
Bibliography / References / Works Cited
A friend says Wikipedia is a scholarly source. How would you explain why it isn’t?
Anyone can edit, not peer-reviewed, often lacks reliability
What makes scholarly sources different from popular ones in terms of review process?
Peer review by experts
What do both A’s in CRAAP stand for?
Authority and Accuracy
Why is the publication date important when evaluating a source?
Shows if the information is current or outdated
What is plagiarism?
Using someone else’s words or ideas without giving credit.
What does “.gov” at the end of a website mean?
Government site
Give one example of a scholarly database where you can find peer-reviewed articles. (Ex. EBSCOhost)
JSTOR, ProQuest, PubMed, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, etc.
You’re writing a paper on climate change in the U.S., but you find a source about farming in Africa. Which CRAAP category does this fall under?
Relevance
Name one sign a website might not be credible.
No author, lots of ads, biased language
What’s one difference between paraphrasing and summarizing, and why does it matter for citations?
restating in detail; Summarizing = condensing main idea. Both require citations.
What’s the difference between a primary source and a secondary source? Give one example of each.
Primary = original material (e.g., diary, experiment results). Secondary = analysis or commentary (e.g., textbook, review article).
List two features you’d check to confirm that an article is scholarly.
References list, author credentials, academic publisher, etc.
What do the letters in the CRAAP test stand for?
Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, Purpose
What does “bias” mean when evaluating sources?
One-sided or slanted presentation of information
Why can’t you cite ChatGPT (or another AI tool) as the original source of information?
Because AI doesn’t create the facts—it generates text based on other sources, which need to be cited directly.
Why might a .com website be less reliable than a .edu site?
Commercial sites often try to sell something and may be biased