{"id":231,"date":"2019-07-24T11:36:12","date_gmt":"2019-07-24T15:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/abestudentsuccess\/chapter\/researching-information\/"},"modified":"2020-09-11T10:46:02","modified_gmt":"2020-09-11T14:46:02","slug":"researching-information","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/studentsuccess\/chapter\/researching-information\/","title":{"raw":"9.1 Researching Information","rendered":"9.1 Researching Information"},"content":{"raw":"
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As a college student, it is important that you can find reliable sources for your class work and assignments. It is also essential that you know how to correctly use and handle the sources when you make them part of your own work.<\/p>\n

Outside of school, most of us also feel that it is important to be informed about current issues and ideas. Knowing what is going on in the world is, arguably, a citizen\u2019s responsibility. Plus, it feels good to join in a conversation and know the facts, or to be sure we are sharing a meme, social media post, or news article that\u2019s accurate and trustworthy.<\/p>\n\n

Snopes<\/h1>\n

Snopes is a widely respected, non-partisan site dedicated to investigating rumors, memes, social media statements, and news stories, and then issuing decisions about whether the materials are correct or false.<\/p>\n\n

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Exercise: Using Snopes<\/p>\n\n<\/header>\n

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Go to Snopes\u2019 \u201cWhat\u2019s New\u201d page<\/a>\u2014a page that updates daily and includes the latest rumours.<\/p>\n

Scroll through the list until you find an interesting hot topic. Click and read, then write a quick paragraph that summarizes what you found. What did you learn? Were you surprised?<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

If this captured your interest, you may want to explore Snopes a little more. It\u2019s a fun place to poke around and a great place to fact-check information. The next time you are forwarded a bit of information and you want to know if it's true before you become outraged and send it to all your friends, do a search for it on Snopes.<\/p>\n

As humans living in the digital age, people should know how to navigate the Web successfully, find the best materials, and evaluate and use them with confidence. Alas: in an age where a quick Google search nets millions of \u201chits\u201d in half a second, evaluating the sources of the chosen material can be trickier than it sounds. There\u2019s a lot of great material on the Web, but there\u2019s a lot of garbage, too. Being able to tell which is an important life skill in the digital age.<\/p>\n

We also need to understand who \u201cowns\u201d information\u2014whether hard copy (printed) or digital\u2014and how and when to give credit to the owner; this keeps us safe from accidentally committing plagiarism. This will be discussed in the next section, Chapter 9.2 Plagiarism<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Finding Quality Texts<\/h1>\n

In the world of academia, our gold standard for texts requires them to be created by people with substantial education, advanced degrees, and life expertise, making them experts in their fields. If I\u2019m reading a cookbook, I want it to be by someone who really knows their way around a kitchen\u2014not someone who\u2019s a mediocre cook but decided it would be fun to collect the family favourites into a self-published book.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re a college student. Without a doubt, the best place for you to find quality information is the college library\u2014and you can do this by walking into the library or searching it via the Web. Many college libraries\u00a0 have adopted a new set of guidelines for helping students find good materials. It\u2019s called CRAP<\/strong>. Yes, really! CRAP stands for currency, reliability, authority, and purpose\/point of view.<\/p>\n\n

CRAP<\/h2>\n

Note: some libraries use CRAAP<\/strong> instead of CRAP<\/strong>, adding a second \u201cA\u201d for \u201caccuracy.\u201d The simple CRAP<\/strong> method, below, incorporates \u201caccuracy\u201d into the \u201creliable\u201d category. Besides, using CRAP<\/strong> is more fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
C: Currency<\/td>\n\n
    \n \t
  • Is this the most recent material you can find?<\/li>\n \t
  • Is the material recent enough to accurately represent your topic?<\/li>\n \t
  • Has it been updated recently?<\/li>\n \t
  • For electronic sites, does the site appear modern and up to date?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
R: Reliability<\/td>\n\n
    \n \t
  • Is the material objective?<\/li>\n \t
  • Can you detect any obvious bias or loaded language?<\/li>\n \t
  • Are sources available to back up the piece?<\/li>\n \t
  • Does the material seem accurate?<\/li>\n \t
  • Is it well written and free of errors?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
A: Authority<\/td>\n\n
    \n \t
  • Does the author have degrees, experience, or other expertise in the topic area?<\/li>\n \t
  • Is the host source reliable (e.g. a respected newspaper versus an individual blog)?<\/li>\n \t
  • Is the publisher reputable and well known?<\/li>\n \t
  • Do you have a sense of trust for the author?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
P: Purpose and Point of View<\/td>\n\n