What is CRAAP?

CRAAP is a method of evaluating a source to determine its accuracy and help you decide if it is trustworthy. CRAAP is easy to use, and revolves around identifying five features:

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• Currency: Is new information required? If so, how recent is the source? Has the information been updated?

• Relevance: Is the information important to you? Who is the intended audience?

• Authority: Where is the information coming from? What are the author's credentials? Are they biased?

• Accuracy: Is the information verifiable? Has it been fact-checked? Are there errors?

• Purpose: What is the point of the information? What does the author want you to get out of it? Are they trying to inform, or to sway your opinion?

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Using these questions to guide your evaluation of a source is a good way to ensure you are receiving good information. Answering these questions isn't always clear-cut, and specific points like authority and currency can be particularly tricky to determine in the case of AI-generated sources. For this reason, determining if a source is AI is an important step to evaluating it.