When you come across an unverified or unauthorized source, such as a social media post, a website, or a news article, it's necessary to assess the information for credibility before reposting or sharing and especially before including it as one of your sources for an assignment.

You might have heard of the CRAAP test, which is a quick, easy way to assess an information source. CRAAP asks you to evaluate credibility based on the author, relevancy of the information to your topic, the date for currency, the purpose of the information, and the accuracy of the content. The most important thing to remember is checking the content of the article and checking the author's sources or links to verify where they're getting their information. 

Here are a few simple steps you can practice when looking at unverified source.

STOP Before you start to read, ask what you know about the source or information it contains.

INVESTIGATE If you don't know the source and can't verify it, open up Google or another search platform and do a little more research on the information and source, itself. 

FIND trusted coverage or more information from multiple different sources to a quick confirmation that the original source is reporting the right information. Finding more information from a variety of valid sources, such as Washington Post or local news channels can help you confirm the post or source is true or at least that it's valid.

TRACE any claims, references, quotes back to the original source or study. Especially if it's a meme or video with no other information attached, it's helpful to find the context of how or where the source came about. 

(SIFT was originally created by Mike Caulfield, an educator in digital technology and director of Washington State's Blended and Networked Learning program.)