English 102 - Sr. Marci Hermesdorf

Welcome to the wiki for English 102 -- specifically for Sr. Marci Hermesdorf's section.

In the side bar (over there -->) you will find a menu for resources to help you with the annotated bibliography assignment.

If you have any questions, you can always contact me -- Molly Beestrum. My extension is 708-524-6886 and my email is mbeestrum@dom.edu.

The Annotations

Now it is your chance to practice evaluating sources and writing annotations.

Here's how this will work. In groups of three (I will let you know how this will break down) you will evaluate a website or an article based on the CRAP test. (More on that in a second). Then, you will (as a group) write an annotation for your source on the wiki. As a class we will look at the sources and the annotations and you can tell us where you got the information to write the annotation.

So what is the CRAP test?

The CRAP test is a way to evaluate a source based on the following criteria: Currency, Reliability, Authority and Purpose/Point of View. Below are some questions to help you think about how to measure each of the criteria.

Currency -
- How recent is the information?
- How recently has the website been updated?
- Is it current enough for your topic?
Reliability -
- What kind of information is included in the resource?
- Is content of the resource primarily opinion? Is is balanced?
- Does the creator provide references or sources for data or quotations?
Authority -
- Who is the creator or author?
- What are the credentials?
- Who is the published or sponsor?
- Are they reputable?
- What is the publisher's interest (if any) in this information?
- Are there advertisements on the website?
Purpose/Point of View -
- Is this fact or opinion?
- Is it biased?
- Is the creator/author trying to sell you something?