E V A L U AT I N G S O U R C E S U S I N G T H E C A R S C H E C K L I S T

CRITICAL READING

AN IMPORTANT PART OF CRITICAL READING IS EVALUATING WHETHER OR NOT YOUR SOURCE IS CREDIBLE.

• Sometimes it’s obvious…

• Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanies Even though it is a nice looking website at first glance, it is obvious that you would not use this information as a credible source for anything serious.

CREDIBLE OR NOT????

At first glance this website looks legitimate. However, upon further exploration, there is some questionable information….

• Sometimes not so obvious…

• All About Explorers

CRITICAL THINKING

• Your job as a critical thinker is to consider what you read and hear in your personal, work, and school life and to determine what is credible and what is not.• Test your critical

thinking skills on some common “knowledge”:

• A blind girl “saw” the flash of the first atomic bomb.

• True and false elements• Consumers need to be cautious

that water boiled in a microwave oven can suddenly “explode”.

• True• A special compound added to the

water in swimming pools can reveal the presence of urine.

• False• The Great Wall of China is the only

man-made object visible from the moon.

• False• It takes more muscles to frown

than to smile.• Undetermined• Source: Snopes.com

CARS CHECKLIST: A TOOL FOR EVALUATING WHAT YOU READ

• It is impossible to complete verify everything that you read, and even reliable sources of information will not always pass all these tests, but critical thinkers are in the habit of evaluating what they read and hear.

• Credibility: author, association, qualification, contact info• Accuracy: date, purpose and audience,

completeness and balance, • Reasonableness: fair, objective, unbiased, no

logical fallacies• Support: is there evidence and documentation

to back up claims

SNOPES

• Practice: Use the CARS checklist to evaluate the following website. Give an overall scores of 0-4 for each area then pick an area that seems weakest (if there is one).

Snopes.com• Credibility _____• Accuracy _____• Reasonableness _____• Support _____