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Capital Punishment in        the News

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Evaluate

WHY? Rationale for Evaluating What You Find on the Web

image of man frustrated at his computer

The World Wide Web can be a great place to accomplish research on many topics. But putting documents or pages on the web is easy, cheap or free, unregulated, and unmonitored.

• Documents can easily be copied and falsified or copied with omissions and errors -- intentional or accidental.

• In the general World Wide Web there are no editors (unlike most print publications) to proofread and "send it back" or "reject it" until it meets the standards of a publishing house's reputation.

• Most pages found in general search engines for the web are self-published or published by businesses small and large with motives to get you to buy something or believe a point of view.

• Even within university and library web sites, there can be many pages that the institution does not try to oversee.

        The web needs to be free like that! And you, if you want to use it for serious research, need to cultivate the habit of healthy skepticism, of questioning everything you find with critical thinking.Therein lies the rationale for evaluating carefully whatever you find on the Web.

        The burden is on you - the reader - to establish the validity, authorship, timeliness, and integrity of what you find.

        Internet Sites

        Surfing the Web

          surfing the web

        The Internet can be a valuable source for supplementing the information you have gathered from books and periodicals.

        However, it is VERY IMPORTANT that you EVALUATE THE INFORMATION you get from the Internet to determine if it is reliable and useful to your research.

        To find authoritative websites that relate to your particular topic, see the subject specific controversial issue research guides or ask a librarian.

        Here are a few Internet sites to get you started with the writing portion of your assignment:

        Evaluating Internet Sites - Step by Step

        Countless web pages are available on just about every topic, but how can you know what's worthwhile or credible?Evaluation of web pages and websites has become a necessary part of the research process, and a means to sharpen your own critical thinking skills. Some of the fundamental questions to consider during evaluation are:

        AUTHORSHIP
        Note that "author" can mean a person or organization.
        • Who is the author of the website?
        • What are the author's credentials? Is the author an authority on the subject? Is it another student? A professor? Your next door neighbor?
        • Is the author an organization? What do you know (or what can you find out) about this organization? What is its purpose?
        ACCURACY
        Information must be judged accurate and verifiable before you use it in your own research or assignments.
        • Is the site edited well? Are there spelling or grammatical errors? Is it written in a style that you would expect for the topic and audience?
        • Don't accept the information at face value - you'll need to take time to consult other sources (including non-web sources) to verify accuracy fully
        • Does the information on the site "fit" with other information that you have on the topic? Or are there discrepancies with other sources of information?
        • Does the author provide a way to verify information on this site? Are footnotes, citations, or sources provided?
        CURRENCY
        Look at both the date of publication and update, as well as the dates for any cited information.
        • Is the page or website being updated and maintained?
        • When was the page written? Last updated or revised?
        • How current is the information? Does this fit your needs? Note that website content written in May 2008 might contain information from 1975.
        • Be aware that "Last updated" may mean any update on the page, including stylistic changes such as different colors or layout - not necessarily changes to content.
        CONTENT
        Does the information on the website meet your research or information needs?
        • How detailed is the information - is it basic or advanced?
        • Is the coverage of the topic complete? Does it leave out important information? Does it offer more than one perspective?
        • Is the web page part of a longer document? Sometimes you will need to look at more than one page to get the complete picture.
        • Is there a bibliography or links to other information on the topic? How were the links selected? Are the other sources mentioned relevant and credible?
        • How does the content compare with other resources (books, journal articles, other web pages) on the same topic?
        PURPOSE
        The purpose of the site should be clear. Be aware that some sites present opinion as fact in order to sell or persuade.
        • Does this site present fact or opinion?
        • What is the purpose of the site? To inform? To sell? To persuade?
        • Is the site objective, showing multiple sides of an issue? Bias is not necessarily reason to reject a source - but be sure that you can identify it.
        • Who is the intended audience? Advanced researchers in a field? Elementary school students? Members of a particular organization or viewpoint?
        • If there is advertising on the page, does this affect the content?
        DESIGN
        Visual layout, choice of images and media files often have an impact on a website's professional credibility.
        • What kind of information - textual, visual, aural - does the page present, and does this add or detract from the page's usefulness or legibility?
        • Do image or other media files slow down load time or navigation through the website?
        • Do the different design components work, or are images, sound files, etc. unable to display, play, or run?
        • Does the web page require specific add-on software in order to read, see, print, or listen to resources linked on the page? Is that add-on software readily available or must it be purchased?
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