LANG1402 Chap.5 Judging Sources with the CRAAP Test
Judging Sources with the CRAAP Test
Five judgements instead of one impression
The test is a short checklist, used widely in libraries and in teaching, for deciding whether a source is solid enough to build an argument on. Its value is that it is explicit. Currency asks when the source was published, whether that is recent enough for the topic and whether it has been updated.
Relevance asks whether it addresses your question, who the intended audience is and whether it adds something your other sources do not. Authority asks who the author is, whether they are qualified and whether the publisher is a respected journal or institution. Accuracy asks whether claims are supported by evidence and citations and whether they can be verified elsewhere.
Purpose asks why the source was created, whether it is biased, and whether it is scholarly rather than an opinion piece, an advertisement or generated content. An untrained reader forms one overall impression; the five criteria force five separate ones.
Scoring turns a disagreement into a diagnosis
In the checkpoint lesson each criterion is rated from one to three and the total falls into a published band.
Thirteen to fifteen means keep, eight to twelve means revise, and five to seven means replace. The arithmetic matters less than what it does to a conversation: two students who disagree about a source now have to name the criterion they disagree on. Two habits keep the scoring honest. Score each criterion before you look at the total, because knowing a source is near the keep band makes it tempting to round a two up.
And treat a one on authority or purpose as a veto rather than as three points lost, because a source with no identifiable author or an outright selling motive does not become citable by being recent and readable.
Feedback that changes a decision
Between five and seven of the checkpoint's marks depend on what you contribute to other people's work, and the lesson opens by asking what you actually do when a peer tells you a source is fine.
Useful feedback is specific, tied to a named criterion, actionable, and directed at the source rather than the person who chose it. When receiving it, the published instruction is to take notes and ask clarifying questions but to avoid defending your choices, which is harder than it sounds and is where the marks are.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Currency, relevance, authority, accuracy and purpose
- 02
Why a generated answer is named under purpose
- 03
The one to three rating scale across all five criteria
- 04
Keep, revise and replace, and what each band instructs
- 05
Why authority and purpose work as vetoes
- 06
Specific, evidence-based, actionable and respectful feedback
- 07
The two completion requirements inside the outline brief
- 08
Reflecting on a pattern across several peers' comments
Score a source that looks respectable and is not
- 5Score each criterion separately and justify each score in a clause.
- 1Total the score and name the band.
- 1Give an instruction the student can act on today.
Key terms
- Currency
- How recent a source is, judged against how quickly the topic moves rather than against a fixed cut-off date.
- Relevance
- Whether a source directly addresses your research question, is pitched at a suitable audience, and adds something your other sources do not.
- Authority
- Whether the author is identifiable and qualified and whether the publisher is a respected journal or institution, which is the criterion a missing byline settles immediately.
- Accuracy
- Whether claims are supported by evidence and citations and can be checked against another source, rather than simply asserted.
- Purpose
- Why a source was created, and whether that motive is to inform rather than to persuade, sell or entertain.
- Actionable Feedback
- A comment that names a criterion, gives a reason and states a next step, so the person receiving it knows what to change.
- Peer Evaluation
- A structured session in which group members rate each other's shortlisted sources against stated criteria and give written and spoken comments.
- Shortlist
- The set of candidate sources brought to the checkpoint session, from which a refined final list of three emerges after group scoring.
Judging Sources with the CRAAP Test FAQ
Does a promotional source automatically fail?
Not automatically. The lesson asks you to identify which of three texts you would still use while citing it carefully because of a commercial or promotional purpose, which shows that a declared motive is a handling instruction rather than a disqualification. What it cannot do is carry a claim by itself, and it scores one on purpose, which is a veto if it is also weak elsewhere.
What if a peer's comment is wrong about my source?
Take notes and ask a clarifying question rather than defending it, because that is the published instruction and because an inaccurate comment still tells you what a reader saw. If three peers independently mark you down on the same criterion, that is not three opinions but one finding about how you have been choosing sources.
How many sources should I bring to the checkpoint session?
Three, with a full citation in the required style, a working link or file and one or two sentences explaining each choice. At least one has to come from the library power search or the statistics service named in the checklist, which means a shortlist assembled purely from open web searching does not meet the brief.
Assessment move
Score your three sources before the session rather than during it, and write the score next to each one. Arriving with your own numbers turns the group discussion into a comparison of judgements rather than a first reading, and it is the only way to notice that a peer scored your source two bands differently.
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