First Year Seminar (FYS)

One of our favorite ways to evaluate information is by using the SIFT method. 

SIFT stands for: 

• Stop - Pause and ask yourself if you know the source and whether it's reliable. If you don't know, check! 
• Investigate the source - Look into the author or organization. What are their credentials? What is their purpose?
• Find better coverage - Look for other sources that cover the same topic. Do they agree or offer more context?
• Trace claims, quotes, and media to the original source - Go back to where the information came from to check for accuracy and context.

On Instagram you see a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. that says, "Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred." This would be EXCELLENT for your paper on emotional responses to injustice in social movements.

But wait, let's use the SIFT method:

• Stop - You pause before accepting this as fact. Did he really say that? How do you know? 
• Investigate the source - You check the profile that posted the quote and see that it came from an educational account focused on the American Civil Rights movement. 
• Find better coverage - You search for the quote on Google and see a link from NPR to one of Dr. King's speeches. NPR (National Public Radio) is an independent, non-profit news source in the U.S. 
• Trace the claim - You try to find where the original quote came from and discover it's from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech given on August 28, 1963 in Washington D.C. 

What do you think? Is it good to use in your essay?