iRubric: Info Lit - Evaluating the Information Itself rubric

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Info Lit - Evaluating the Information Itself

Info Lit - Evaluating Information Sources

Questions to ask about the information in the information source you're thinking of using.

Rubric Code: AB7629

By sarahmorehouse

Ready to use

Public Rubric

Subject: Education

Type: Handout

Grade Levels: 6-8, 9-12, Undergraduate, Graduate, Post Graduate

Evaluating Information Sources Questions to ask about the information source you are thinking of using
	Poor or Unknown Low quality, unreliable. 0 pts	Fair Medium quality and reliability, or has both good and bad aspects. 1 pts	Good High quality, reliable. 2 pts
Timeliness/Currency 2 pts How recent or up-to-date is its content? (and how important is that to you?)	Poor or Unknown Information is out of date. New information has either contradicted it, changed or added to it. Old-fashioned biases and bigotry.	Fair Information is older but hasn't been contradicted or substantially changed or added to since it was published. (This rarely happens in the sciences but is somewhat common in the social sciences and very common in the humanities.)	Good Information is as current as it can get. Less than 2 years old for sciences. Less than 5 years old for social sciences and humanities.
Purpose 2 pts What is the intended purpose? (Think educate/inform, sell something, entertain, change minds/behavior, even propaganda/hate speech)	Poor or Unknown Purpose is to entertain, sell you something, or persuade you and they have used sketchy techniques like deception, emotional manipulation, logical fallacies, weasel words, loaded language, etc. May try to look like an informational/educational purpose but is actually propaganda.	Fair Purpose is to entertain, sell you something or persuade you but no sketchy techniques are used, and information is provided that can be verified from external sources.	Good Purpose is to inform or educate.
Audience 2 pts Is the target audience appropriate for your use? (Think age group, educational level)	Poor or Unknown Target audience is children or a group of people who all share the same ideology.	Fair Target audience is non-experts.	Good Target audience is fellow experts, scholars and students in the subject area.
Logical Fallacies 1 pts Does the author try to confuse or convince you with logical fallacies?	Poor or Unknown No logical fallacies.	Fair Minor, commonplace logical fallacies. Nothing significant.	Good Heavy use of logical fallacies. Logical fallacies central to main argument.
Research Methods and Research Bias 1 pts Was the research conducted properly and rigorously?	Poor or Unknown Rigorous scientific method applied. No discernible research biases.	Fair Overstates significance of conclusions, or insufficiently rigorous methods.	Good Obvious problems like not controlling for outside factors, not selecting a representative or big enough sample, cherry picking data, misrepresenting data, etc.
Emotional Manipulation 1 pts Does the author try to convince you using manipulation?	Poor or Unknown No attempt to manipulate you through your emotions.	Fair Minor use of emotional appeals like imagery and anecdotes.	Good Uses weasel words, loaded language. Heavy use of manipulative imagery or anecdotes. Propaganda or close to it.
Agenda 1 pts What, if any, ideological slant did the author write for?	Poor or Unknown Transparency. May be influenced by cultural or disciplinary paradigms and schemata, but no ideological slant to the information source.	Fair Transparency. A religious, political, or other ideological point of view.	Good Tries to conceal actual agenda. Hate groups, conspiracy theorists, denialist groups.

Keywords:

information literacy, evaluating sources, authority, reliability, info lit

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