research

Week Four Assignment: Evaluating Sources

PURPOSE: The purpose of this assignment is to demonstrate critical thinking skills by researching a problem and identifying credible evidence to support your solution to it. To do so, you will evaluate sources in a, reasoned, reflective, and informed manner.

Remember that careful research and evaluation of information takes considerable time, even for expert researchers!

This assignment is worth 100 points and is due by Sunday at midnight. Please refer to the rubric for detailed scoring criteria.

PREPARATION: Review the document "Evaluating CRAAP Guide" in this week's "Additional Resources" folder and keep it handy, as you will be referring to it when writing your evaluations of the sources you select for this assignment.

View the APA formatting workshop in the “videos” section of your classroom this week.

Use the Leatherby Library video on searching the databases, also available in the “videos” section of your classroom this week.

Allow yourself plenty of time to search many sources before selecting ones to evaluate. Tip: It is a good idea to keep a running list of terms that describe or are related to your topic.

STEPS: The steps for this assignment are as follows:

1. Locate two sources using the online databases at the Leatherby Library Brandman page (use the “Library” link in your Blackboard course shell to reach the correct site). If you have trouble, please contact the librarian, whose contact information will be displayed on this page.

2. Underneath each of the references, evaluate the source using the CRAAP (Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose) criteria as well as the points of criteria outlined in the text from your assigned readings this week.

Please submit the completed assignment as a .doc file to the dropbox in Week Four. It is due no later than Sunday of Week Four at midnight, PST.