Credible and relevant – choose your information with care
Being able to find credible, trustworthy information both at uni and in the workplace, is an important and challenging task. There is so much information available to us. Critically evaluating the information you find is key to study success. You will also need to choose credible sources in the workplace – you don’t want to give your boss something that turns out to be inaccurate.
Why do you need to evaluate information?
Click the plus (+) symbols in the image below to discover why evaluating information is important.
What can I do?
Critical thinking is key! But there are also some tools you can use to help you evaluate:
- The Dependability Checklist
- The SIFT Method
Dependability Checklist
To help you evaluate articles and information you find for your assessments and research, we have created a Dependability Checklist! It can help you make decisions about the dependability, credibility and trustworthiness of the sources you are considering using in your assessments.
The checklist contains ten questions to get you thinking critically about the resource in front of you. Once you have developed the skills, you won’t need to rely on the checklist.
Each question asks for your YES or NO response about a particular feature of your resource. More YES answers result in a higher dependability score.
But remember evaluation is a critical thinking skill, not a formula! You may have a good reason to keep a source that has scored lower.
The SIFT Method
The SIFT Method is a simple 4-step method to help you evaluate information that you find on the web. This method, based on fact-checking strategies, helps you to quickly make a decision about whether or not a source is worthy of your attention.
SIFT Method Information and Graphics from Chapter 17: The SIFT Method Introduction to College Research
Watch this video where Mike Caulfield, Washington State University digital literacy expert, explains how to quickly and easily investigate a source using the SIFT Method:
More videos and details on using the SIFT Method can be found in Chapter 17: The SIFT Method in the eBook Introduction to College Research.