The Persuasive Essay

Use the CRAP Test to help determine if your information source is credible.

1. Current - When was it written or updated last?  
2. Reliable - Where did the information come from? Is there evidence to back it up or just anecdotes?
3. Authority - Who wrote it? Are they experts or authorities about this topic?
4. Purpose - Why was it created? What's the purpose? Does it seem biased, one-sided, sensational? Is it an editorial or opinion piece, trying to persuade, or to sell something? Or fact-based, objective, trying to inform?

Evaluating information is more than just reviewing the way a website looks or checking the "About" page. The "How to Spot Fake News" steps below give you some basic ways to start evaluating info you read and John Green's "Facts About Fact Checking" video will show you how to put those steps into practice!

• The facts about fact checking

• Check Yourself with Lateral Reading: Crash Course Navigating Digital Information #3

  Video #3 in John Green's Crash Course Navigating Digital Information discussed lateral reading - a skill used by fact checkers.

• NPR: A Finder's Guide To Facts

  NPR shares a list of strategies to assist you in being skeptical but proactive in verifying information.

• University of Minnesota LibGuide: How do we become better citizens of information?

  This University of Minnesota LibGuide provides steps on being a responsible consumer of information.

• TEDEd: How to choose your news

  "Damon Brown gives the inside scoop on how the opinions and facts (and sometimes non-facts) make their way into the news and how the smart reader can tell them apart."