When you make an observation, identify a problem, or develop a question, you will search for sources to obtain more information about the issue. For this worksheet, identify an issue (relevant questions for specific observations, problems, or research) and the sources you will, might, and might NOT use to obtain more information; then, use the CRAAP test to evaluate the potential source. You should be able to think of at least 10 different types of sources the purpose of CRAAP is to identify those that you should use versus those that you should NOT use. (Hint: everyone will probably have Wikipedia as one source. In general, Wikipedia is a good source for ideas on your topic of choice, but the majority of Wikipedia sources are not valid evidence use CRAAP to find out why.)

For this worksheet: Make a specific observation or identify a problem you would like to research more. Develop some relevant questions for your issue. Make a list of potential fact-finding sources for answering specific questions about your problem. Select five of the potential resources on your list and perform the CRAAP test.

For Strength of Support analysis, a scholarly journal is one of the strongest. In general, on a scale of 1-5:

5 scholarly journals, scientific research studies, statistical databases from government, legal (laws, cases) databases

4 organizations as author, educational organization (colleges, universities) materials

3 Topic specific sites depending on topic and evaluation of author; personal interviews of supervisors for employee behaviors (but must consider bias/personal opinion)

2 Blogs some are valid support depending on topic, content, authority, accuracy

1 No support (social media, marketing sites, opinion, tradition, etc.)

For complete description of CRAAP categories, see the C 2-3 Handout CRAAP

What is the issue you are researching (questions, problem, subject etc.)?

Source	Currency	Relevance	Authority	Accuracy	Purpose	Strength of Support
First two are examples
Ribatti (journal)	>10 yrs (2009)	Medicine relevant background	Teaches A&P; no competing interest	Confirms other sources	Historical	5
*John Doe: Personal interview	2 weeks	Questioning for observation confirmation	Job involves topic; supervisor of department	Personal observations	Identify observations to further inform hypothesis	3
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

* John Doe interview not included in references would be identified with an in-text citation (J. Doe, personal communication, date of interview)