Learning outcomes
- Explain how to assess authority, date, relevance and independence.
- Complete the guided activity safely.
- Check that you can choose stronger evidence.
Web Search and Research
Evaluating Source Quality
Learn to assess authority, date, relevance and independence and choose stronger evidence in this beginner-friendly ChatGPT lesson.
Before you begin
Write the question, required date range and preferred source types before searching. Plan to open and verify important sources yourself.
Step-by-step instructions
- Open ChatGPT Search or Deep Research where available and confirm you are using the intended account or workspace.
- Compare an official source with an unsourced summary.
- Pause and check privacy, permissions, source material, feature availability and any instruction that affects the task.
- Review the result carefully and confirm that you can choose stronger evidence.
- Save only the useful, verified output and record one improvement for your next prompt.
Ian's practical tip: Start with fictional or non-sensitive information. Treat the first response as a draft, then verify facts, sources, calculations and permissions before using it.
Practical activity
Compare an official source with an unsourced summary. Your expected result is to choose stronger evidence.