Week 9 — Quiz (auto-graded) · Research: Finding & Evaluating Sources

Course: English Composition (ENGL 1A) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Lindgren
Objective tested: Objective 5 — research questions, source types, and source evaluation (finding & evaluating sources).
Points: 10 (1 each) · Assignment group: Quizzes (10% of grade) · Due: end of Module 9. AI is not permitted on quizzes.

This is the human-readable quiz with its vetted answer key and feedback. The import-ready Classic QTI is in F-quiz-week-09-qti.xml (generated by a validated script — parses with 10 items, every single-answer item exactly one correct). The Canvas placement block is at the bottom of this file. No free-response items — all auto-gradable (MC / multiple-answer / matching / true-false).

Blueprint

No trick questions; distractors target the Week 9 misconceptions named in the lecture outline. No real outlet is described with any fabricated claim; where a source is named it is described only by its factual category.

Questions, key, and feedback

Q1 (MC). Which of the following is a research question, not just a topic?
- A. Climate change
- B. The history of the internet
- C. Does a four-day school week improve high-school students' attendance? ✅
- D. College athletics
Feedback: A research question is focused and answerable with evidence — it tells you what to look for and when you're done. A, B, and D are topics (broad subjects you could write a library about); only C asks something research could settle.

Q2 (MC). A historian quotes from a soldier's original wartime diary. In the historian's essay, that diary is a —
- A. primary source — original, first-hand material ✅
- B. secondary source, because it's old
- C. popular source, because it isn't academic
- D. peer-reviewed source
Feedback: A primary source is the original, first-hand thing itself — a diary, a speech, raw data, an interview. A secondary source would analyze or report on it (e.g., a journal article about wartime diaries). Age and academic status don't decide the category; first-hand vs. about-it does.

Q3 (MC). What most distinguishes a scholarly (peer-reviewed) source from a popular one?
- A. Scholarly sources are always shorter and easier to read
- B. A scholarly source is written by experts and reviewed by other experts before publication; a popular source is written for a general audience and is not peer-reviewed ✅
- C. Popular sources are always unreliable and should never be used
- D. There is no real difference between them
Feedback: The markers are peer review and audience. Popular sources aren't bad — a reputable newspaper is a perfectly good source — they simply clear a different bar than a peer-reviewed journal. (Scholarly articles are often harder to read, not easier.)

Q4 (MC). Lateral reading means —
- A. reading a source slowly and carefully from top to bottom before deciding
- B. trusting a site if its 'About' page and design look professional
- C. leaving the source and opening new tabs to see what independent sources say about who's behind it ✅
- D. reading only the first page of search results
Feedback: Lateral reading is the fact-checker's move: you judge a source from the outside by checking what independent sources say about it, instead of staying on the page (vertical reading), where good design and a confident 'About' page can fool you.

Q5 (Matching). Match each CRAAP evaluation criterion to the question it asks.
| Criterion | Correct question it asks |
|---|---|
| Currency | When was it published or last updated? |
| Authority | Who is the author or publisher, and what makes them qualified? |
| Accuracy | Is the information supported by evidence and verifiable elsewhere? |
| Purpose | Why does this source exist — to inform, persuade, sell, or entertain? |
Feedback: CRAAP = Currency (when), Relevance (does it fit my question), Authority (who), Accuracy (is it supported/verifiable), Purpose (why it exists / its bias). Watch the mix-up between Authority (who) and Purpose (why).

Q6 (MC). You are writing about the current teen vaping rate and need the most credible, up-to-date source. Which is the best choice?
- A. An undated blog post on a vape shop's website urging readers to buy
- B. A recent report from a government public-health agency (a .gov site), with named authors and cited data ✅
- C. An anonymous comment on a social-media thread
- D. The first sponsored (ad) result in a web search
Feedback: For a current, credible statistic, a recent .gov agency report with named authors and cited data wins on authority, accuracy, and currency. The vape-shop blog has a selling purpose (bias) and no author or date; an anonymous comment has no authority; a sponsored result is an ad, not a vetted source.

Q7 (Multiple answer — select all that apply). Which features make a good research question?
- A. It is focused on one slice of the topic, not the whole thing ✅
- B. It can be answered with evidence ✅
- C. It is so broad that an entire book could be written to answer it
- D. It is more than a trivial yes/no fact and points toward a thesis ✅
- E. It can be answered with a single word from memory
Feedback: A strong research question is focused (A), answerable with evidence (B), and more than a trivial fact, pointing toward a thesis (D). A question so broad a whole book is needed (C) is still a topic; one answerable from memory in a word (E) is trivial.

Q8 (True / False). "Adding more sources to a research paper automatically makes its argument stronger."
- True
- False ✅
Feedback: False. A long Works Cited isn't an argument — credible, relevant sources are. Three strong sources beat ten weak ones, and padding with junk actually lowers your credibility. (Depth and quality, not body count.)

Q9 (MC). A classmate says, "It's a .org site, so it must be trustworthy." The best response is —
- A. Agreed — .org is reserved for reputable nonprofits
- B. Not necessarily — .com, .org, and .net can be registered by almost anyone; only .edu and .gov are restricted, so you have to check who's actually behind the site ✅
- C. Agreed — the domain extension is the most reliable sign of credibility
- D. It doesn't matter, because all websites are equally trustworthy
Feedback: .org, .com, and .net can be purchased by anyone; only .edu (schools) and .gov (government) are restricted. A .org can be a world-class nonprofit or an advocacy front — so the domain proves little, and you evaluate who's behind it (ideally by reading laterally).

Q10 (MC). Why does a source found through a library database (e.g., JSTOR, EBSCO) usually clear a credibility bar that a random open-web result does not?
- A. Library databases only contain sources published this year
- B. Database sources have typically been screened by editors or indexers before inclusion, while anyone can publish anything on the open web ✅
- C. The open web never contains any credible sources
- D. Databases rank results purely by how popular they are
Feedback: A database is a pre-filtered collection — its sources have usually passed an editorial or indexing screen before you ever see them. The open web is unfiltered: anyone can publish, optimized to rank, not to be true. (The open web does hold excellent sources — .gov reports, major newspapers — but you must do the filtering.)

Answer key (quick reference)

Quality gate (self-checked): each single-answer item (Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4, Q6, Q9, Q10, and the T/F Q8) has exactly one correct option; the multiple-answer item (Q7) keys A, B, D (and requires C and E left unselected); the matching item (Q5) pairs four CRAAP criteria to four distinct questions one-to-one. No quotations, no fabricated sources, and no citations appear in this quiz: real reference categories (a .gov agency report, a peer-reviewed journal, a library database) are described only factually and by category, and the only named scenario sources (a soldier's diary, a vape-shop blog, a four-day-school-week question) are the instructor's own illustrations, attributed to no one. No real organization is credited with any invented claim, award, quotation, or citation. No computation in this quiz. No free-response items. Citation-integrity + correct-conventions gate: PASS.

Item-bank entries (for variants + the midterm/final)

All ten items are tagged course=ENGL1A · week=9 · objective=5 · topic=finding-and-evaluating-sources and deposited in Item Bank: Week 9 — Research: Finding & Evaluating Sources. The final (Week 16) and the per-term variant updates draw fresh items from this bank. (Tags: q1 research-question-vs-topic, q2 primary-vs-secondary, q3 scholarly-vs-popular, q4 lateral-reading, q5 craap-match, q6 most-credible-for-purpose, q7 good-research-question, q8 more-sources-misconception, q9 dot-org-misconception, q10 database-vs-open-web.)

Canvas placement block

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title           = "Week 9 Quiz — Research: Finding & Evaluating Sources"
assignment_group = "Quizzes"
points_possible = 10
grading_type    = points
due_offset_days = 6        # 6 days after module start
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ai_permitted    = false    # AI is not permitted on quizzes
provenance      = "~ Prof. Lindgren's edition · Fall 2026 · built with thecoursemaker.com"