LibGuides: EN 102-08/26: College Composition II: Evaluating Sources

Using Critical Thinking to Evaluate Sources

Think Critically!

The ability to think critically about information is essential to evaluating its reliability and relevance. Use the resources on this page to help you become a better news consumer and critical thinker as well as a good digital citizen!

SIFT It

Learn to recognize misinformation using the SIFT assessment method developed by digital literacy expert Michael Caulfield , research scientist and instructor at the University of Washington:

STOP and check for previous work: Look around to see if someone else has already fact-checked the claim or provided a synthesis of research conducted.
INVESTIGATE by going upstream to the source: Go “upstream” to the source of the claim. Since most web content is not original, you should backtrack to the original source of the assertion to understand the trustworthiness of the information.
FIND better coverage by reading laterally: Once you get to the source of a claim (book, article, photo, etc.), read what trusted sources say about it. Look for consensus amongst these sources.
TRACE the claim. Circle back to the original source and assess its context.

Click here for a tutorial on using the SIFT method - and you can also view a quick video on lateral reading, a key component of the SIFT method: