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ENGL 1101

Evaluating online sources

Some of your assignments will require you to find sources on the internet, but not everything you find online will be reliable. It's important to develop evaluation skills and learn to identify quality information. There are several methods for evaluating online sources, most of which are a version of a fact-checking technique called Lateral Reading. You can watch an introduction to lateral reading in the video below.

On this page, you can learn more about techniques for evaluating online sources, including

  • S.I.F.T. (The Four Moves)
  • Just Add Wikipedia
  • Google Reverse Image Search
  • Click Restraint

Techniques

S.I.F.T. (The Four Moves)

The S.I.F.T. technique can be used to evaluate information you find online. It is also known as the Four Moves.

Graphic containing the letter S for Stop and a stop sign icon, the letter I for Investigate and a magnifying glass icon, the letter F for Find and a checkmark icon, and the letter T for Trace and process icon

S.I.F.T. (The Four Moves) is is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

  • S is for STOP (consider your own biases)
  • I is for INVESTIGATE the source (Who is the author? Who is the audience?)
  • F is for FIND trusted coverage
  • T is for TRACE (Claims, quotes, media to original sources

Read more about SIFT (The Four Moves).

Just Add Wikipedia

This omnibar hack is a shortcut to looking up a source you've found in Wikipedia - it's one way to do the I for INVESTIGATE the source move.

The “Just Add Wikipedia In the Omnibar” Trick

Google Reverse Image Search

You can use Google Images to search for images you find online. The video below will show you how it works.

Click Restraint

The video below summarizes how fact checkers evaluate search results before clicking on a link.

Activities

Demonstration: STOP

Visit the following links and and consider your biases when presented with the content you find there.

The Pacific Northwest tree octopus

Britannica: candiru

Weird & Wonderful Creatures: The Blobfish

  • STOP: what is your initial reaction? What biases are you aware of?
  • How would you Investigate the source, Find trusted coverage, or Trace claims?

Activity: Just add Wikipedia

  • Work in pairs or small groups.
  • Go to the Just add Wikipedia post from mikecaulfield on Infodemic.
  • Read the summary and skim the rest of the post to see examples of how it works.
  • Use this technique to evaluate the article Denmark’s Dollar Forty-One Menu.

Activity: Google Reverse Image Search

In this activity, you will try to trace the source of the image in the infamous shark tweet.

  • Right-click or Control-click and choose Copy Image Address.
  • Open Google Images.
  • Click the Search by Image icon.
  • Paste the link to the shark image and run the search.
  • Can you find the original image source?