05 Jan For online sources,

African American women are usually not recognized as leaders. Of course, we must define what a leader is. We want to bring these women back into history. Choose one African American female leader. It is first come, first serve for this essay. This forum is for between the end of World War II and the present. You are to use the library or the course bibliography. However, for this forum, you may also search online. If you do, you will be graded on the quality of the website, and you must justify the academic quality of the website. In other words, you must use the information below and write in a paragraph (not as part of the essay) how you know your website was an academic one. Grading will be with the grading rubric for essays. Therefore, you cannot use the textbook or encyclopedias. You must cite and use at least one academic source.

The CRAAP test will help you learn what an academic source is:

Currency: How old is it? Is it up-to-date? Or is it a primary source document?

Reliability and Relevance: What is the source of the information? Is it relevant to your topic? Who published it? Is it peer-reviewed? Is there a bias?

Authority: Who is the author? What are their credentials? What is their field of expertise?

Purpose or Point-of-View: What is the author’s intention? Who is it written for (which audience)? Is this a primary source or secondary document? Is it a tertiary document (not allowed)?

For online sources, you must ask addition questions. What is the domain (.edu?)? Who publishes the site, or sponsors it? Is it recent (has it been updated)? Are there advertisements or signs that it is a poorly designed website with all kinds of distractions? Is the site supposed to be an academic one? Or is it someone’s pet project?

Remember that this is a formal essay and you need an introduction with a thesis statement, body, and conclusion. Because students must respond, please submit your essay as soon as possible. After your essay, justify your use of the CRAP test.

Pick wisely!!!..You cannot repeat a person already covered by another student in the initial post or follow up essay. Points will be taken off for repeating material already covered and you must label your forum heading with the key figure’s name or group’s name.

***You can label your heading prior to writing your forum response- go back after you label your post and edit it to add the information. This way you can claim the person before someone else does.