Evaluating Online Sources: A Toolkit

Use SIFT (also described on this guide's first page) to evaluate these sources.

• Stop.
• Investigate the source.
• Find credible sources.
• Trace claims, quotes, and media back to the original context.

Are the sources generally credible? Why (not)? Is it worth your time to move on to deeper reading of either source? Be prepared to share your evaluation process.

Based on Mike Caulfield's SIFT (Four Moves), which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Source Evaluation Exercise: Is this something you might use in your academic writing? Why (not)?

Follow the links below. Evaluate the sources and determine whether you might use them for your academic writing. Why (not)?

First use SIFT (described above). Then determine whether to apply the deeper reading strategies. Be prepared to share about your evaluation process.

• Evaluating Information: The Cornerstone of Civic Online Reasoning 
• Lateral Reading: A How-To
• Lateral Reading: Reading Less and Learning More Online

In this game Fake Out, evaluate whether a Twitter post is based on a true story. (from NewsWise, of the Canadian Journalism Foundation)

Hint: The SIFT acronym described above will help!