📚 Research Papers & Citations · Lesson 3 of 7
Evaluating sources
Peer review, the CRAAP test and lateral reading.
Scholarly vs. popular
| Scholarly (peer-reviewed) | Written by experts, reviewed by other experts, has references — journals |
|---|---|
| Popular | Written for the public — news, magazines, blogs; useful for context |
| Trade | For professionals in a field — industry magazines |
| Primary vs. secondary | Primary = original data or documents; secondary = analysis of them |
The CRAAP test
| Currency | When was it published? Recent enough for your topic? |
|---|---|
| Relevance | Does it answer your question? |
| Authority | Who wrote it? Credentials? Publisher? |
| Accuracy | Evidence, references, consistent with other sources? |
| Purpose | To inform, sell, persuade? Any bias? |
Lateral reading
For websites, don’t judge only from the site itself. Open new tabs and search for the organization and author: who funds them, what do others say about them? Professional fact-checkers do this first.
Watch out for
Predatory journals that publish anything for a fee, sources that cite no evidence, outdated statistics, and AI-generated summaries that invent citations. If you can’t find the original, don’t cite it.
Tip
💡 A strong paper uses mostly scholarly sources, plus a few high-quality primary or government sources for data.
✏️ Practice: your turn
- Run the CRAAP test on 3 of your sources
- Classify each as scholarly, popular or trade, primary or secondary
- Read laterally on one website source
- Replace your weakest source with a better one
✏️ APA & MLA citation generator with a saved works-cited list
🧠 Quick quiz
Answer all 4 questions correctly to mark this lesson as done.
0 of 4 correct
All lessons in Research Papers & Citations
- ❓ 1. From topic to research questionNarrow a broad topic into a question you can answer
- 🔎 2. Finding scholarly sourcesLibrary databases, Google Scholar and smart search terms
- ⚖️ 3. Evaluating sourcesPeer review, the CRAAP test and lateral reading
- 🧭 4. Thesis and outlineAn arguable thesis and an outline built around it
- 💬 5. In-text citationsQuoting, paraphrasing and citing in APA and MLA
- 📋 6. References and Works CitedFormatting the list: APA 7 and MLA 9 entries, hanging indents and order
- ✅ 7. Formatting, revising and academic integrityPaper format, revision passes, the writing center and AI rules