✅ Checkpoint: Verification Toolkit

By Better Wise

Quiz

  1. A post links to nationalwellnessinstitute.org claiming a supplement 'boosts focus by 40%.' Which action is the lateral reading move?
    • Open new tabs and search the organization name plus 'funding' or 'who owns' to see what independent sources say.
    • Share it quickly before the information gets old.
    • Judge the page by its clean design and confident tone.
    • Scroll the article top to bottom and check its About page for a trust badge.
  2. In SIFT, what does the T move ask you to do?
    • Trace the claim back to its original context: the study, the full quote, the uncropped image, the raw numbers.
    • Trust the source if its About page sounds professional.
    • Tag the post for later and keep scrolling.
    • Test the headline by reading the whole article carefully.
  3. A post about a new bridge design quotes 'Dr. M. Okafor, PhD' saying the design is unsafe. The profile link goes to a personal blog, and the PhD is in musicology. How should you rate expertise?
    • Impossible to rate without reading the whole blog.
    • High, because the quote is specific and confident.
    • High, because the source has a PhD.
    • Low, because the field does not match the claim and the credential is self-reported with no institution.
  4. Two documents support the same claim about a factory coating: the manufacturer's own test report, and a lab study the manufacturer funded but published with methods and data visible. What is the best verdict?
    • Weight the manufacturer's report more because it is the original.
    • Weight the published lab study more, but only slightly, and check funding terms, methods, and any independent replication.
    • Reject both, because money touched them.
    • Treat them as equal because both are documents.
  5. A post cites 'a Harvard study from 2014' with no title or author. Searching the phrase returns only other posts repeating it. What should you conclude?
    • The claim is primary because it names a university.
    • The claim is proven false.
    • The claim is untraced and unsupported as presented, so ask for the source.
    • The claim is true because many posts repeat it.
  6. A news article says a study found a link between sleep and memory. You find the original paper. Which check belongs to the match test?
    • Whether the article was shared widely.
    • Whether the paper's authors are famous.
    • Whether the number, population, comparison group, wording, and date match the claim.
    • Whether the journal website looks professional.
  7. Reading ____ means leaving the page to open new tabs and see what independent sources say about the source, instead of reading the page itself top to bottom.
  8. The original document where a claim began, such as the study, dataset, court filing, or full transcript, is called the ____ source.
  9. When a claim travels through press releases, news articles, and reposts, ____ and caveats usually vanish first, while numbers drift.
  10. Run the full verification toolkit on a claim you have not seen before. Pick one claim from your feed, then write a short report: (1) which SIFT move you ran first and why, (2) the four credibility axes with a high, medium, or low rating and one line of evidence each, (3) the trail you followed to the original source or where it ended, (4) the match test result, and (5) your final verdict and what evidence would change your mind.

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