13 Critical evaluation

Critically evaluating information is a great skill to build. As you find and read sources for a research paper or assignment ask yourself:

  • Who wrote this? What is their “expertise” or “experience”?
  • Why did they write it? What evidence or sources are they using? Can I find similar information in other sources?
  • Is it relevant? Does it help me bring my own voice into my writing assignment?

Critically evaluating information is useful in your college career, in a future job and IRL (In Real Life) – like voting, shopping, making medical decisions or straight up not getting scammed.

If you don’t already have these tools in your critical thinking toolkit — then let us introduce you to #ToolsWeLike:

Snopes rating - Mostly FalseSnopes: www.snopes.com

Snopes is a fact checking website. It can help you uncover misinformation, false claims, made up stories, hoaxes and scams. It has been checking facts since 1994 and it has a long history of doing a pretty good job. Don’t just take our word for it — read about snopes yourself.

Politifact rating - Pants on fire.Politifact: www.politifact.com

“PolitiFact is a fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others on its Truth-O-Meter.” Politifact is run by the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit school for journalists. Don’t just take our word for it  — read more, who pays for politifact.

Choose an option to move forward.

Option 1: Got it! Tell me more about research for voting

Option 2: Got it! Tell me more about researching current issues

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UMN Libraries Adventure Copyright © by Kate Peterson; Lacie McMillin; and Kat Nelsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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