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PH450 Prof. Marchese: Evaluating Web Resources

Criteria for Evaluating Web Resources

The CRAP Test- Criteria for evaluating websites*

CRAP stands for Currency, Reliability, Authority, and Purpose/ Point of View

 

Criteria

Evaluation

Currency

How recent is the information?

When is the last time the website updated?

 

☐ Yes

☐ No

Reliability

Are there spelling or grammatical errors?

Are references or citations provided?

 

☐ Yes

☐ No

Authority

Who is author?

What are the author’s credentials or organizational affiliations?

Who is the publisher or the sponsor the website?

 

☐ Yes

☐ No

Purpose/ Point of View

Is it objective or biased? Is the information fact or opinion?

What is the agenda of the website? Trying to sell something or advocating group’s point of view?

Who is intended audience?

 

☐ Yes

☐ No

 

*Meriam Library, California State University, Chio (https://www.csuchico.edu/lins/handouts/eval_websites.pdf)

Google Search Tips

 Top Five Helpful Google Search Tips

1. Use quotations for phrase searching: "global warming"

2. Limit search results within a site or domain: "global warming" site:nytimes.com or site:gov

3. Limit search results within a specific time frame: Click "Tools" and choose "custom range"

4. Expand your search results using OR: "global warming" OR "climate change" 

5. Exclude words using a minus symbol (-): Javascript -coffee