Department of Journalism and Mass Communications

We all know there is a wealth of information available on the Internet.  The problem with searching for information on the Internet is that we don't always know where it comes from and whether or not it is authoritative.  It is important to be selective and to evaluate the information you find online.  

Apply the CRAAP Test  with each website you visit, especially those you plan on using in your paper or project. 

The CRAAP test is a checklist for evaluating websites. CRAAP is an acronym for:

Currency - Is the material current? Does it contain outdated or disproven information? Is the site maintained regularly?

Relevance - Is the material relevant to your question?

Author - Who wrote the content? What are the author's qualifications? Is there a way to contact the author?

Accuracy - How accurate is the information? What evidence does the author use? Does the author cite sources?

Purpose - What is the purpose of the content? Is the content objective or biased?

Download a PDF about the CRAAP test here.

A domain name suffix (the last letters of a web address), reveal a lot about the type of website. Here are a few common domain name suffixes:

 .com - Commercial

 .org - Non-profit

 .gov - Government website

 .edu - Educational

*Note: Other countries use specific domain names. For example sites that end in .ca are Canada, and sites that end in .au are from Australia.