Accuracy

Accuracy relates to whether the information is truthful and reliable.

Determining Accuracy

There are various methods we can use to determine accuracy.

• Look for a bibliography, which is a list of references used by the author. It's easier to trust what is written if we know where the information came from.
• Look for quotes from named people or links to other web sites that are being written about. Again, this tells us where the information came from.
• Compare what we're reading with other sources. If the information presented in one source is greatly different than every other source we've read on the topic, we should question that information.
  • Keep in mind that if we need to find an opposing argument for our topic, then we will purposely look for a source that says the opposite of what we're arguing. 
• If the author was careless with grammar and spelling, the author may have been just as careless in conducting their research. Experts and scholars take the time to edit and proofread their sources before publishing. 

Evaluation Examples

Weak: "This article is accurate because it relates to my topic."

Not necessarily. Being related to our topic makes it relevant, but that doesn't prove accuracy.

Strong: "This article provides a bibliography showing where it got all the information."

This is a much better indication of accuracy, and if we also look at the dates of the sources in the bibliography, we can determine currency at the same time. An even stronger sentence would be: "This article provides a bibliography showing where it got all the information and most of its sources are from the last 5-8 years." We're also covering more than one C.R.A.A.P. criteria in one evaluative sentence, making our work easier.