Excerpted from University of Louisville Libraries Citizen Literacy Toolkit. Shared with permission, Amber Willenbord, Associate Professor and Instruction Coordinator, University Libraries, University of Louisville.
Citizen Literacy was created by Robert Detmering, Amber Willenborg, and Terri Holtze for University of Louisville Libraries and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Consider each of these factors when assessing sources you uncover
C = Currency [Timeliness of the information]
R = Relevance [Importance of the information for your needs]
A = Authority [Source of the information]
A = Accuracy [Reliability, correctness, and truthfulness of the content]
P = Purpose [The reason the information exists]
S = Source [Who is providing the information?]
M = Motivation [Why are they telling me this?]
E = Evidence [What evidence is provided for generalizations?]
L = Logic [Do the facts logically compel the conclusions?]
L = Left Out [What is missing that might change our interpretation of the information?]
This chart contains a variety of questions that you should ask yourself when evaluating books, periodicals, and web sites based on five main criteria.
Criteria | Questions to Ask Yourself When Evaluating: |
---|---|
Currency |
|
Authority |
|
Validity/Accuracy |
|
Audience |
|
Point of View (Bias) |
|