Try It: Source Analysis

To Do

stack of books

In this section, you learned about analyzing sources to verify that they are current, relevant, authoritative, accurate, and purposeful. In this exercise, you’ll apply what you’ve learned to assess the usefulness of some articles.

1. Focusing on the “Authority” aspect of the C.R.A.A.P. test, take a few minutes to read the following two articles and consider the authors and their credentials.

After you have read each article, write a paragraph providing your opinion of the authority of each article using the established guidelines. Remember, you are not stating your opinion of the article but rather your justification of why or why not the article meets the authority test.

2. Now you are ready to apply your analysis skills to examine the sources you found in your previous database searching. Pick one of the search results you found through EBSCO and use the C.R.A.A.P. method to evaluate the resource. Write a short paragraph addressing each of the following sections:

  • Currency
  • Relevance
  • Authority
  • Accuracy
  • Purpose

Refer back to the content pages about for a list of questions and topics to consider with each C.R.A.A.P. section. Finally, write a summary statement indicating if and why you think the resource is worth utilizing for your research.

Worked Example