2. When I receive information, I usually... accept that the information is true. or do I... consult a credible source to verify the author’s claims/facts.

3. Know Your Personal Biases Do I tend to look at things as either: “right/wrong” OR “good/bad” ?

4. Know Your Personal Biases Insecurity Fear Ignorance Peer/Family influence

6. What type of website is it? Who is behind the website? Is the information supported with verifiable evidence?

7. What type of website? promoting an opinion or political agenda selling a service or product offering tips/advice news or blogs governmental scholarly article Wikipedia-type

8. Top Level Domains Products, Services, Ideas, Agendas (.org,.com) Non-profits (.org,.edu) Scholarly/educational (.edu,.org) Popular press (.com,.org) Governmental (.gov,.mil) Personal (.com,.edu,.net)

9. Author: Who’s Behind the Website? Who pays for the site? Who maintains the site? Who writes the information?

10. Check to see if site provides an identifying link: “About Us” “Who We Are” “Mission Statement”

11. credentials: the education, work, or other experience that qualifies an individual or organization to address a particular topic.

12. Do You Want Friend or an Expert?

14. Know when writers are masking personal opinions as factual statements.

15. Writer’s personal opinion: I think gays do a poor job of raising healthy, well socialized children. Writer states personal opinion as fact: Gays do a poor job of raising healthy, well socialized children.

16. Your response to such statements should be: How does the writer know this claim to be true? Does the writer support her opinion with credible evidence?

17. reliable evidence: authoritative, balanced, and accurate source whose claims can be verified through credible sources.

18. to verify: determine the accuracy of a statement, fact, or statistic

19. Unsupported Statements Student’s claim: According to Ebreastaug.com, Americans spent $12 billion on cosmetic surgery (ebreastaub.com). Cited source :

20. Supported Statements Revised claim: “In 2007, Americans spent approximately $8 billion on surgeons’ fees for cosmetic medical treatments (Sarwer, 2006).”

21. Supported Statements Student discovered statistical source in the following article: Sarwer, D. “Physical Appearance & Cosmetic Medical Treatments: Socio-Cultural Influences.” Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology 2 (2006): 29-39.

22. Verifying Sources Check credentials of author: Listedin library databases? Academic Search Elite

23. Reliability of Author: Credentials Is author the subject of internet chatter? Google the author’s name

24. How to Tell a Reliable Site What type of website is it? Who is behind the website? Is the information supported with verifiable evidence?