1. Understand Background of Your Topic - ELC1012/ELC1013 - English for University Studies - Guides & Tutorials at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Related Guide(s)

Library Guide "Select & Evaluate Source" : Evaluate Popular Sources
Popular sources refer to magazines, newspapers, and social media. They are not peer-reviewed, but they help you quickly build a general overview of a topic. How do you evaluate popular sources? To determine the trustworthiness of these sources, you can use the CRAAP test.

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Where to Start?

You can start by reading background information on your topic and developing your terminology around the topic.

1. From Reference Works

Reference works include dictionaries, encyclopaedias, and handbooks. They provide authoritative summary information on a field or subject.

Reading articles published in reference works helps you:

Understand the key issues, history, and sometimes the latest debates on a topic without going through dozens of books, journal articles, and other materials.
Develop a mind map on a topic and learn keywords and terminologies for further research.

Useful resources for references and summary information:

Below are some recommended sources where you can find reference works. Try searching for your topic in any of these sources and see if you can find any interesting articles. Then, expand your terminology further.

Credo Reference

Credo Reference helps you find short articles on a topic from thousands of reference books in different disciplines. It's the scholarly version of Wikipedia.

Here you can see an example. After searching the topic, we got a few articles (and sometimes a mind map too) related to the topic.

SAGE Knowledge

SAGE Knowledge is another database to find published reference works. If you wish to explore a topic in more details, you can read more from these handbooks and encyclopedia articles.

OneSearch

OneSearch is library's search engine where you can find almost everything the Library has including books, journals, DVDs. You can use OneSearch to search the reference works too. Run a search on your topic and limit by "Reference Entries". Clicking on the search result will bring you to the article published in reference works.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia. It's a great tool to help you quickly get an overview of a topic and understand the key issues or latest debates.

Sometimes students may come up with this question:

Should I use Wikipedia for research?

The short answer is, yes you can. However, you need to:

Remember that Wikipedia is a wiki where anyone can edit, delete or add false information.
Always check the source and cite the original sources.
Use information from credible sources, e.g.scholarly journals, government websites, professional associations, reputable online newspapers, etc.

Below is a snapshot of an Wikipedia article's reference list, with a few creditable sources highlighted.

2. From News & Information Around You

You will be given a research topic for your assignment. Try searching the topic on Google and check the result list - you may see entries from newspapers, Wikipedia or other sources.

At this stage, you can do 3 things:

First, try to collect some keywords from the search results (e.g. Google Search results).
Read 2-3 articles from the top results (e.g. News articles or Wikipedia articles) to understand more about the topic. Continue to collect keywords from the articles.
While reading, consider other related terms and develop your terminology around the topic.

Recommended News Resources:

If you wish to find more news articles on a topic, you can use these Library-subscribed news databases.

Factiva
provides worldwide full-text coverage of local and regional newspapers, trade publications, business newswires, press release wires, media transcripts, news photos, business-rich Web sites, investment analyst reports, market research reports, etc.
South China Morning Post (SCMP)
Provides online access to South China Morning Post articles of the latest 20 years ("rolling archive").
WisersOne (formerly WiseNews)
Content from newspapers, magazines, journals and newswires in the Greater China region, including Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

Let's say the topic of your assignment is "hotel industry". You are interested to learn if there are any hotel industry studies related to COVID.

Click to see an example

You can google the terms and collect some keywords directly from search results. You can also explore some news articles and Wikipedia entries to further develop your terminology. Here are some examples:

From search results:

Keywords collected:

Covid
Coronavirus
Covid-19
Hotel Industry
Hospitality

From a News article:

Expand the keyword list:

news

Covid
Coronavirus
Covid-19
Pandemic
Hotel Industry
Hospitality
Leisure
Tourism

From a Wikipedia entry:

Expand the keyword list:

Wiki

Covid
Coronavirus
Covid-19
Pandemic
Hotel Industry
Hospitality
Leisure
Tourism
Travel restrictions

Tips for Developing Terminology using mind map:

You can use a mind map to jot down and structure the keywords you have collected. Simply draw on a piece of paper, or use an online tool such as Whimsical, Miro, MindMeister or XMind.

Tips for evaluating Information & GenAI sources using CRAAP Test

CRAAP test is a simple tool to help you evaluate information sources. It involves asking yourself a few questions across 5 key aspects to determine whether a source is suitable for your research or decision-making. Watch this video to learn how it works.

CRAAP (Quick Checklist)

Criteria	Description	Questions
C - Currency	Timeliness of information	When was it published? Has it been updated? Does your topic need current information, or are older sources acceptable? Are the links functional?
R - Relevance	Contextual fit	Does it relate to your topic? Who is the intended audience? Is it at an appropriate level for your needs? (i.e. not too elementary or advanced for your needs) Have you consulted various sources, before determining this is one you will use? Would you cite this in your academic research?
A - Authority	Source credibility	Who is the author/sponsor? What are their credentials or affiliations? Is the author qualified on the topic? Any contact information available? Does the website URL reveal anything about the source? .gov - a government site .edu - an educational site .com - a commercial sit .org - an organization site
A - Accuracy	Reliability of content	Where does the information come from? Is it supported by evidence? Has it been reviewed? Can you verify it through other sources or personal knowledge? Is the language or tone unbiased? Are there spelling or grammatical errors?
P - Purpose	Reason for existence	Do the authors make the intentions clear? What is the purpose? E.g. to inform, teach, sell, or persuade Is it fact, opinion, or propaganda? Is the viewpoint objective and impartial? Are there any biases? E.g. political, cultural, religious, personal biases

Modified based on Evaluating Information - Applying the CRAAP Test By Meriam Library, California State University, Chico