Word document with instructions and website link attached. Fact Checking Report

Word document with instructions and website link attached.
Fact Checking Report Essay
Read the first section of Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers. For this assignment, you’ll be putting the contents of that text into practice.
To complete the fact-checking assignment, you must:
1. Find a controversial claim made in the media or shared on social media this year – it could be a Instagram post, Tweet, or meme.
a. If you’re stuck, scroll through your Instagram, Facebook or Twitter feed and look for something that sparks an emotional reaction
b. Remember that the post should contain a claim or argument and should involve widely known people or issues. See examples at the bottom of this document
2. Clearly state that claim.
a. You’ll likely need to put the claim into proper sentence structure (subjects, verbs, etc.)
b. Remember that a claim is an argument. It CANNOT be a question.
3. Make a case for whether that claim is true, false, or somewhere in the middle.
a. This means there are three possible thesis statements for your essay.
b. Write this essay in paragraph form.
c. Cite at least three credible sources in APA style.
i. Use proper in-text citation format and include a properly formatted reference page at the end of the document.
ii. Use the highest standard possible when evaluating the credibility of sources
Example:
Claim: Americans spend $8,000 per household annually “on illegal aliens”
• Note – First you’d have to do a bit of math on this one – my quick math found that 115,000,000,000 (dollars) /126,220,000 (households per 2017 census) = $911 per household
• Next you’d need to determine the source of the claim, what is meant by spent “on illegal aliens” (are we talking lost tax revenue? Social services? Security and identity checks?), and where this person got the $120 M and $115 B numbers.
Sample outline for this essay:
I. Introduction:
• Clear background on any of the people, laws, organizations, or issues involved in the post and claim
• A descriiption of the post/thread/Tweet you’re fact-checking
• A clear thesis statement – something like “The claim made in [organization’s Facebook] post argued _________the claim______________. After fact-checking this claim I have determined it to be [false/partly true-partly false/true].
• A preview of main points
II. Body:
• Paragraph: Argument to support your thesis
o Multiple pieces of evidence to support your thesis argument
o In-text citations for all source evidence provided
• Paragraph: Argument to support your thesis
o Multiple pieces of evidence to support your thesis argument
III. Conclusion:
• Restatement of thesis and main arguments
• Statement in support of or condemning the source of the original post/meme