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Human Development and Family Sciences

This guide will be useful as a resource for assignment help, for research assistance, and for finding subject information.

SIFT to find Quality Sources Online

Use the SIFT skills employed by many fact checkers to determine if a news source or claim is factual and trustworthy. Simply put the SIFT skills are:

Stop! Do NOT read the source you just found, instead:

Investigate the source. Use Google, Fact Checking Websites, Wikipedia and/or the CRAPP test below to find out more about the source of information. Good fact checking websites include, Snopes.com and AP Fact Checker.

Find the original source. If the source you found seems to be quoting from another article or other source, find the original source of information to confirm facts and investigate the original source.

Look for Trusted sources. Build a library in your mind of sources you have found to be trustworthy. When you see a claim online, you can Google the claim and add the name of one of your trusted sources to see if they have covered the same story. Fact checking websites like Snopes are great sources of trustworthy information because of the amount of research they do to verify a story.

*SIFT method was developed by Mike Caulfield based on the skills used by professionals used by fact-checkers

CRAAP Test for Evaluating Sources

What is CRAAP?
CRAAP is a set of criteria designed by California State University, Chico to help you find the best sources for your school work. It is a good starting point for evaluating sources for academic purposes like papers, reports, speeches and websites.

Is it CRAAP?
Use the following rubric to help you choose sources for your paper or other school work.

The CRAAP Test - check for currency, relevancy, authority, accuracy and purpose

Created by Austin Community College Library Services, 2017.

Evaluate all sources that you find whether online or in print. Use CRAAP or your own personal criteria to find sources that are appropriate for your purpose. Your criteria for sources for academic work might be very different than your criteria for sources for personal use. It all depends on the situation.

Media Bias Chart

AllSides Media Bias Chart