HIST 102 - History of the United States Since 1865 - Researching World War II - Gutierrez

By choosing the right source for your assignment you ensure that you are searching in the right place for relevant, reliable information that meets your instructor's expectations and fulfills your assignment requirements.

Some thoughts to consider are:

• Does the source meet the requirements of my assignment?
• Is the source appropriate for college-level work?
• Is the author an expert?
• Is the source relevant to my research focus?
• Does the source give me enough information to help me understand my topic better?

Finding information today is easy; it's all around you. Making sure the information you find is reliable is your challenge.

When you use Google or any social media to get your information how do you know it can be trusted? How do you know it's not biased?

You can feel pretty confident that books you get from the library and articles you find in the library's databases are reliable because someone or some group has checked all the facts and arguments the author made before publishing them. You still have to think about whether or not the book or article is current and suitable for your project but you can feel confident that it is a trustworthy source.

Make sure that each and every source you plan on using in your paper or research assignment passes the CRAAP test.

For more information on evaluating your sources, check out our CRAAP Test: Evaluate Your Sources guide.

Watch the brief video below to see how this works.