Method #1: Lateral Reading Method
Lateral reading is paradoxically the act of NOT reading a website in order to examine and investigate the website's content and information. Fact checkers, people who are paid to determine a website's bias and truthfulness, employ lateral reading techniques. Instead of determining a website's credibility through vertical reading (often through a CRAAP test); looking for date of publication, authorship, domain name, and bias, fact checkers quickly leave the site and open up new tabs in their browser to look for what others have said about the website being examined.
Lateral readers pay little attention to how the site appears, instead they quickly leap off a site and open new tabs. They investigate a site by leaving it.
source: Wineburg, S., & McGrew, S. (2017). Lateral reading: Reading less and learning more when evaluating digital information.
Method #2: Searching for information can be overwhelming. Part of what makes research challenging is that not all information is reliable or high in quality. When evaluating information, a researcher should consider the Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose of each source he or she encounters.
If you find yourself confused as to what kind of article your professor wants you to gather for that paper, use this handy chart to determine if you are looking at an academic or popular article.
Text version of the Academic Journals vs Popular Magazines chart
