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« previous Page 8 of 10 next » "dot com" "dot gov" — suffixes and country codes explainedAny information that you use to support ideas and arguments in a research paper should be given some scrutiny. Printed materials that are collected in a library go through an evaluative process as librarians select them to include in their collections. There is also an evaluation of Web sites that are included in search directories, such as Yahoo!, at least to the extent of classifying and placing sites into a categorization scheme. However, sites harvested by "spiders" or "robots" for search engines don't go through any evaluative process. There are no real restrictions or editorial processes for publishing information on the Web, beyond some basic knowledge of Web page creation and access to a hosting computer. Anyone can publish opinion, satire, a hoax, or plainly false information. To insure that the Web sites you use as information sources are acceptable for research purposes, you should ask questions about those sites. The following are some elements you should look at before deciding to use a Web site as a research resource: Domain suffixThe term "dot.com" has become a ubiquitous phrase in the English language. The "dot.com" really refers to the domain of a Web site. Sites on the Web are grouped by their URLs according to the type of organization providing the information on the site. For example, any commercial enterprise or corporation that has a Web site will have a domain suffix of .com, which means it is a commercial entity. The domain suffix provides you with a clue about the purpose or audience of a Web site. The domain suffix might also give you a clue about the geographic origin of a Web site. Many sites from the United Kingdom will have a domain suffix of .uk. Here follows a list of the most common domain suffixes and the types of organizations that would use them. .com .edu .gov .org .mil .net
AuthorityDoes the site you're evaluating give credit to an author? If no responsible author is listed, is there an indication of any sponsorship? When trying to determine reliability of information given in any medium, you want to have some idea of what the author's credentials are. Are they experts on the topic they are writing about? What is their educational background? Remember, anyone can publish on the Web. They don't have to know what they're talking about. You also want to check and see if there's a list of sources given for the information on a site, like a bibliography that you would have to provide for a paper you're writing. CurrencyInformation that is outdated may be incorrect or incomplete. A well maintained Web site will generally tell you at the bottom of the initial screen when it was last updated and maybe even when it was originally created and made available on the Web. LinksAn informational Web site in which all the hyperlinks are broken might not be a very reliable resource. Broken hyperlinks are not uncommon, due to the ever changing nature of the Web, but when there are many broken links on a Web site, it might be an indication that the site isn't maintained on a regular basis. URLThe site address can give you clues as to ultimate sponsorship of a site. If you can't determine who wrote the site or who or what is sponsoring the site, try truncating the URL to its root address. This will tell you where the site is being hosted. For example, this site provides information on nutritional RDAs: http://www.mikeschoice.com/reports/rda.htm. If you truncate the URL to its root address http://www.mikeschoice.com, you will discover that this is a site selling a mineral supplement. Given the obvious bias, this is probably not the best source of nutritional information. Another clue to what type of site you're looking at is whether there is a ~ (tilde) symbol in the URL. This symbol usually indicates that the site is a personal Web page and the information should be given careful scrutiny. ComparisonAlways compare the information that you find on a Web site with other information sources. Generally, you wouldn't want to use only Web sites as support for a research paper, so you would be looking at other types of sources such as books, magazine articles, etc. as well. How does the information found in the various formats compare? « previous Page 8 of 10 next » Which 3 things should you consider when evaluating a website?There are six (6) criteria that should be applied when evaluating any Web site: authority, accuracy, objectivity, currency, coverage, and appearance. For each criterion, there are several questions to be asked. The more questions you can answer "yes", the more likely the Web site is one of quality.
What are 3 questions that we should ask when evaluating a source?There are four questions to ask when evaluating sources: How well does the source answer the research question? Is the information provided by an expert? Is the source valid?
What are three questions to ask when evaluating information on the Internet?Website Evaluation Questions. Is the information accurate? Is the information reliable and free of errors? ... . Who is the author and what are his/her credentials? Is it clear who the author is? ... . How objective is the source? ... . How current is the information? ... . How extensive is the coverage of information?. What questions can you ask to help you evaluate websites?Ask yourself:. Where does the information come from?. Is the information supported by evidence?. Has the information been reviewed?. Can you verify any of the information in another source or by your own knowledge?. Does the language or tone seem biased?. Are there spelling, grammatical or typographical errors?. |