ACADEMIC SKILLS AND STUDYING WITH CONFIDENCE 1

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Academic Skills and Studying with Confidence

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Table of Contents

1. How do you find information and evaluate its source…………………………………3

2. What do you understand by CRAAP test and how do you use it for studies………….4

3. List key Support Services provided by Leeds Trinity University and explain 3 support
services of your choice………………………………………………………………...5

4. What do you understand by Be Brilliant tab available at the Leeds Trinity University
Library website and how do you use Be Brilliant in your studies? ...............................6
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1. How do you find information and evaluate its source

As a student, from different types of sources, you will gather a lot of information for your use

in research projects and even in assignments. These sources include articles, books,

specialized databases, newspapers, magazines and websites. However, online sources

utilization has been on the rise on the recent years (McGrew et al, 2018). As one scrutinizes

each source to use, it is essential to assess each source to determine the value of information

provided in each source. The most common form of criteria to evaluate include authority and

credibility, accuracy and reliability, purpose and intended audience, and objectivity or bias.

Authority and Credibility

 Who is the author? Is it a person or an organization?

 What are the qualifications of the author?

 Who is the publisher? For books, is it a commercial publisher or a university press?

For journals and magazines, one can tell on whether it is scholarly in nature or popular. For

websites, is a personal blog or an organizational website?

Accuracy and Reliability

 Is the information well researched?

 What was the method of data collection? Was it gathered using original methods such

as surveys?

 Do the sources contain facts and statistical data?

 Do the sources contain references?

Purpose and Intended audience

 What is the purpose of the source? Is it to entertain, sell a product, persuade or

to provide data?

 Who is the source’s audience? General public, students or is it academic

researchers and scholars

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Objectivity or Bias

 Is the information provided biased or unbiased?

 Is the content being advertised clearly labelled?

 Does the information provided promote religious, social or political agenda?

 Does the source have opinions or facts?

The goal of evaluating sources is to determine whether the information provided is high

quality and whether the information is meaningful in answering your questions.

2. What do you understand by CRAAP test and how do you use it for your

studies?

CRAAP stands for:

C: Currency

R: Relevance

A: Authority

A: Accuracy

P: Purpose

CRAAP test is an accessible checklist to use when assessing a web resource or any other

resource (Berg, C. (2017). This test offers a list of questions for one to ask him/herself upon

making a decision on whether a source is reliable and credible enough or not. They help a

researcher determine on whether to use a certain source in an academic research paper.

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Currency

Examines timeliness of the information

 When was the information posted or published?

 Has the information been updated?

 Does the topic only current data or also contains older ones?

Relevance

Essentiality of the information for your needs.

 Does the information in the topic answer your question or relate to your topic

of interest?

 Is the data at a proper level?

 Who is the intended audience of the source?

Authority

Looks into the source of the information.

 Who is the publisher or the author?

 Is the author qualified to write on the topic?

 What are the author’s credentials?

 Does the URL expose anything about the source or the author?

Accuracy

Truthfulness, correctness and the reliability of the content

 Where is the source of the information?

 Has the information been refereed or reviewed?

 Is the information held by evidence?

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 Are there any grammar or spelling errors?

 Does the tone of the information seem free from emotion or sound biased?

Purpose

The reason for the existence of the information

 Did the authors make their intentions clear?

 Are there cultural, ideological, political or personal biases?

 Is the information opinions, propaganda or facts?

 What is the purpose of the data? Is it to educate, sell a product, persuade or

entertain?

I use CRAAP test in my studies. CRAAP test asks a series of questions that address

Currency, Relevance. Authority, Accuracy and Purpose. This process helps me in defining if

the source of my information is credible and relevant to my topic of interest.

3. List down the key Support Services provided by Leeds Trinity University

and 3 support services of your choice

Leeds Trinity University offer high quality support to make sure that one flourishes during

their time at the University. In the University, their key support to students is by identifying

them with their name, not a number. This is because the university believes there are no two

students whose needs are the same. Leeds Trinity’s support services grant students a wide

access to variety of help and advice when needed. The help could concern academic issues or

personal issues.

Leeds Trinity University supports those people with disabilities. They provide extra support

and advice to all students with all kinds of disabilities. They also offer mental health support

by directing a student to appropriate qualified and experienced practitioners on the campus or

outside the campus. Leeds Trinity promotes the general health wellbeing of students by
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ensuring that they are registered with a dentist or a doctor so that they get up to date on their

vaccinations.

4. What do you understand by Be Brilliant tab available at the Leeds

Trinity University library website and how do you use Be Brilliant in your

Studies?

Be Brilliant is a segment of the library webpage when you get a pool of resources to help a

student improve their academic skills. It is a collection of resources to support students in

acquiring knowledge on how to search for, gauge and reference information affectively.

Be Brilliant supports students using PDFs, links, interactive tutorials and videos. These tools

aid students develop their own information skills.

Be Brilliant tab is selected from the library homepage on the menu list. It helps me improve

my skills in evaluating, searching for and referencing data. Importance of Be Brilliant is that

it is available in and out of campus; this means that one can access them anywhere and

anytime. Be Brilliant has helped me in my studies, in that it has taught me on how to do my

referencing well and I have learnt on how to avoid plagiarism. It is always there at the point

of need to improve my skills and confidence.

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References

McGrew, S., Breakstone, J., Ortega, T., Smith, M., & Wineburg, S. (2018). Can students

evaluate online sources? Learning from assessments of civic online reasoning. Theory

& Research in Social Education, 46(2), 165-193.

Berg, C. (2017). Teaching website evaluation: The CRAAP test and the evolution of an

approach.