Week 9 — Readings & Resources · Research: Finding & Evaluating Sources

Course: English Composition (ENGL 1A) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Lindgren
Objective covered: Objective 5 — Find, evaluate, and integrate credible sources — developing a research question and judging credibility through lateral reading.

How to use this page

Everything here is a link to an external resource — open it in your browser, the same way you'd open a YouTube link. Nothing needs to be downloaded, and there is nothing to buy.

This week's load is 3 short readings + 1 video, grouped by the three big ideas — (1) types of sources (primary/secondary, scholarly/popular, database/open web), (2) evaluating credibility (the CRAAP-style test), and (3) lateral reading — plus one optional free reference. Read or watch one item per group and you're ready for the quiz; do all of them and you'll be very comfortable for the quiz, the "Source Detective" assignment, and the "Check the Source" studio. Total time is roughly 35–45 minutes if you do everything, far less if you pick one per group.

Reading order that matches the lecture: ① what kinds of sources there are → ② how to evaluate one for credibility → ③ the lateral-reading move (the fact-checker's secret).

A habit to start now: when you land on any new source this week — and any "source" a chatbot hands you — don't judge it by how it looks. Open a new tab and ask what independent sources say about who's behind it. Trust is something you confirm by leaving the page, not something you grant by staying.

① Types of Sources — Primary/Secondary, Scholarly/Popular, Database/Open Web

Maps to Lecture Segment 3. Primary = the thing itself; secondary = someone analyzing it. Scholarly = checked by experts; popular = written for everyone. Databases pre-screen; the open web doesn't.

Reading — "Types of Sources" (Purdue OWL)
🔗 https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/conducting_research/research_overview/sources.html
Why it's assigned: the clearest short map of the source types we named in class — books, newspapers, academic and trade journals, government reports, websites, blogs, social media, and online databases — with a line on what each is good (and not good) for. Read it to lock in scholarly vs. popular and why a database result usually clears a bar the open web doesn't. This is the core reading for the week.
⏱ ~8 min

Optional companion — "Research" (Excelsior OWL)
🔗 https://owl.excelsior.edu/research/
Why it's here: a free, college-run walkthrough of the whole early-research process — moving from a topic to a research question, then finding and evaluating sources — a good second pass if narrowing your question hasn't clicked yet. (Excelsior OWL is a free writing lab; the Evaluating Sources section below also lives here.)
⏱ ~7 min

② Evaluating a Source's Credibility — the CRAAP-Style Test

Maps to Lecture Segments 4 & 6. A careful researcher asks five questions of any source: Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, Purpose — plus, who's behind it and why does it exist?

Reading — "Evaluating Digital Sources" (Purdue OWL)
🔗 https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/conducting_research/evaluating_sources_of_information/evaluating_digital_sources.html
Why it's assigned: the most useful single page for this week — it directly cures the misconceptions we named: why a .org domain isn't automatically trustworthy (.com/.org/.net can be bought; only .edu/.gov are restricted), why search rank (SEO) isn't credibility, how clickbait works, what makes databases reliable, and how to size up Wikipedia, social media, and blogs. Read it before the quiz and the discussion.
⏱ ~8 min

Optional companion — "Evaluating Sources" (Excelsior OWL)
🔗 https://owl.excelsior.edu/research/evaluating-sources/
Why it's here: a second, friendly walkthrough of source-evaluation criteria from a free writing lab — a good cross-check if the CRAAP questions (currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, purpose) haven't quite landed.
⏱ ~6 min

③ Lateral Reading — the Fact-Checker's Move

Maps to Lecture Segment 5. Don't judge a source by reading down its own page. Read laterally — leave the site and check what independent sources say about it. This is the move professional fact-checkers actually use.

Video — "Check Yourself with Lateral Reading: Crash Course Navigating Digital Information #3" (CrashCourse)
🔗 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoQG6Tin-1E
Why it earns the click: the clearest, liveliest explanation of the week's signature move — John Green shows how to open new tabs and fact-check a source as you read instead of trusting its design. Made with the Stanford History Education Group and the Poynter Institute's MediaWise — the very researchers who discovered that fact-checkers read laterally while everyone else gets fooled. Watch this one even if you skip everything else.
⏱ ~13 min

Want more on judging what's online? The full "Navigating Digital Information" (Crash Course) playlist 🔗 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtN07XYqqWSKpPrtNDiCHTzU covers fact-checking, who to trust, evaluating evidence, and "click restraint." Optional, browse as needed.

Optional one-stop reference (free online text)

If you'd like one optional reference to skim, the OpenStax Writing Guide with Handbook keeps its full text free to read online and has a strong unit on research process and integrating sources — developing a research question, finding and evaluating sources, and (later) citing them — a reputable, currently-available college writing reference.
🔗 https://openstax.org/details/books/writing-guide
Why it's here: a free, returnable reference for the whole course — entirely optional this week. (Linked as a free reference; this course makes no open-license or copyright claim about it.)

Pick-one quick path (≈16 min total)

In a hurry? Do exactly these two and you'll be ready for the quiz:
1. Read "Evaluating Digital Sources" (Purdue OWL) (group ②) — get the .org/SEO/database points down.
2. Watch "Check Yourself with Lateral Reading" (Crash Course) (group ③) — learn the leave-the-page move.

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell Prof. Lindgren and use the free OpenStax reference above in the meantime. Nothing here is hosted by our course — these are all external resources, linked, not reproduced.