It is critical to evaluate the sources you use for academic research, and as a citizen looking for information. You should routinely question the content you find, and learn to differentiate between misinformation, disinformation, opinions, and facts. Assess several aspects of all the content you find, minimally: pinpoint the purpose of the media, question the credibility, reliability, accuracy and learn more about the author and organization's background (motivation, affiliations, donors, expertise, bias, etc.), before deciding if the information is truthful. Evaluation strategies are necessary for understanding and navigating media in today's society.

A Quick Guide to Paraphrasing and Summarizing

Annotated Bibliography Breakdown (Purdue Online Writing Lab)

fake news [feyk nooz] (noun) False information or propaganda published as if it were authentic news 

social media [soh-shuh l mee-dee-uh] (noun) Websites and other online means of communication that are used by large groups of people to share information and to develop social and professional contacts 

evaluation tool [ih-val-yoo-ey-shuh n tool] (noun) A process or procedure to judge or assess the trustworthiness of something 

credibility [kred-uh-bil-i-tee] (noun) The trustworthiness or reliability of something 

bias [bahy-uh s] (noun) prejudice; consciously or subconsciously favoring one person or point of view more than others 

accuracy [ak-yer-uh-see] (noun) The condition or quality of being true, correct or exact; freedom from error or defect 

reliability [ri-lahy-uh-bil-i-tee] (noun) The ability to be relied on or depended on, as for accuracy, honesty or achievement 

Sources: Dictionary.com, freethesaurus.com, Learningforjustice.org

Topics include: Confirmation Bias, Fake News, Bias, Misinformation, Disinformation, Social Media, Lateral Reading

Lateral Reading

The Modern Language Association (MLA) Resource Evaluation Checklist

Web Evaluation Flowchart 

CRAAP Test Worksheet based on this CRAAP Diagram (Note: You need to be logged in to your mcpsmd.net account to access the worksheet below)

Basic & Advanced Website Evaluation Worksheets (Kami fillable forms)

Basic: https://kami.app/KqFOOpvb5xry 

Advanced: https://kami.app/qa7biyZRkkWb 

Key Questions to Ask when Analyzing and Creating Media Messages

Learning for Justice (formally Teaching Tolerance) Evaluating Sources Handout

If you are looking for more information about information you come across, you can use Google to conduct an exact phrase search, but putting the search phrase in quotation marks "" (more information/ Google tips here)