Exercises — Week 9: SIFT Model; Database Literacy; Annotated Bibliography Peer Review
1 hands-on tasks. Do them in order; each one feeds the Canvas item it names.
12 min · on-screen-scaffold
1. SIFT Source Evaluation Checklist
- STOP — Before reading or sharing, pause. What do you already know (or assume) about this source? What might cloud your judgment about it?
- INVESTIGATE THE SOURCE — Open a new tab and lateral-read: Who published this? What does Wikipedia or other credible sites say about this publisher or author? Are there red flags about funding, bias, or agenda?
- FIND BETTER COVERAGE — Is this the original source for the claim? Search for the primary study, government report, or peer-reviewed article being cited.
- TRACE CLAIMS — Does the cited data actually appear in the original source? Does the original say what the citing article claims it says?
- DATABASE CHECK — Is this source available in PGCC's EBSCO, ProQuest, or JSTOR? Peer-reviewed filter: is 'Scholarly/Peer Reviewed' checked in the database limiter?
Turn in / bring: On-screen reference — apply SIFT to every source before adding it to your Annotated Bibliography. Lateral reading takes 3–5 minutes per source and prevents credibility errors.