Accessing Reliable Internet Sites
Please view the following slides in
order. Carefully read the text and
follow any instructions that are
given.
Goals for Tutorial
At the completion of this tutorial students
will:
Access reliable internet sites
Accessing Reliable Web-Sites
To properly identify if a website is a reliable
source of information, there are 5 main
categories of questions you need to ask
and find the answer to about the site.
These categories are: Relevance to Topic,
Authorship, Updates, Professionalism, and
Bias. Each of these 5 categories of
questions contain even further questions.
Accessing Reliable Web-Sites
Category 1- Relevance to Topic
You need to make sure the website you
are accessing is relevant to your topic.
Using a search engine can bring up
information that uses the same wording
you entered but may have an entirely
different meaning. Asking the questions
found on the next slide will help filter out
irrelevant sites.
Accessing Reliable Web-Sites
Does this site mention my specific topic or
only part of the topic?
Is my specific topic the prominent theme for
the website?
Does my specific topic appear only in text
and advertisments found on the website?
Accessing Reliable Web-Sites
Category 2- Authorship
You need to know who is presenting the
information found on a website. If the
author is unreliable, then so is the
information. To test the site for reliable
authorship you should, at minimum, know
the answer to the questions found on the
next slide:
Accessing Reliable Web-Sites
Is the name of the author or authors
listed? If is not, you should question the site.
Is the biography or profile of the author
available on the site?
Is their bio correct? (a quick ‘Google’ search of the
author’s name can help answer these questions)
Accessing Reliable Web-Sites
Category 3- Updates
You need to know when the site was created
and when it was last updated. This can be
easily checked by looking for said date stamps
on the website. If you cannot find the ‘creation
date’ or ‘updated date’ then there is a good
chance the site is not reliable. A good site is
updated regularly. Out dated information can be
dangerous while doing research.
Accessing Reliable Web-Sites
Category 4- Professionalism
You need to evaluate how professional the
website looks, feels, and presents
information.
This category probably has the most
questions and some of the most important.
Check the next slides for questions.
Accessing Reliable Web-Sites
Does the site have misspelled words our
use slang and improper grammar? An
educated author will use proper grammar and will properly spell
words. At a minimum the text should have been filtered using a
word processor. Slang is rarely found in any professional works.
Does the site have a solid technical
structure? If the technical aspects (such as navigation and
use of graphics) of how the site works and presents information
does not work, most likely it was put together in a hasty fashion or
has not had any review or revisions.
Accessing Reliable Web-Sites
Does the site speak in generalities or in
specifics? If specifics are used, does the
author site their sources?
Are opinions stated as facts or are they
properly offered as opinions? When the grammar
used makes it clear that the author is speaking openly and freely
about the subject is should be clearly noted as their opinion.
Accessing Reliable Web-Sites
Category 5- Bias
You need to know if the author has a bias
opinion about the topic or if they have any
hidden motives behind the information
they are offering. This can sometimes be
noticed when accessing the
professionalism of a site.
Accessing Reliable Web-Sites
What is the file extension?
Different extensions generally mean
different things. .com = a commercial site, .edu = a learning institution, .gov
= government officiated site, .org = generally non-profit organizations, and
.net = can be commercial but is generally more for groups and clubs. This
may tip you off to any bias and can help determine professionalism
What would the author have to gain from
presenting their information?
Are there any other opinions about this topic that
are vastly different?
Accessing Reliable Web-Sites
One last note about the world wide web. It has been said that
if you put ten million monkeys in front of ten million keyboards
and you gave them years to hack one of them they would
eventually type the next great American Novel. It has also
been said that thanks to the internet, we know this isn’t true.
There is a lot of private information out there that is publicly
posted to the internet. Sites like MySpace, YouTube, and
even Wikipedia should not be considered reliable as the
general public can use these forums to publish their own
thoughts.
A final note about Wikipedia. While it is not currently
considered reliable, there is an effort to filter and
professionally review all posted material. It will, however,
remain a forum for the public to collectively post information.
You should always be careful.
Practice Accessing Reliable Sites
Your Topic Is: History of Dragster Racing
With this topic in mind access the following sites. After
you access these sites, you need to rate the sites from 1
to 10 with 1 being the most reliable and 10 being the
least reliable. After you have ranked the sites, please list
what information you found that made you rank them the
way you did. Use complete sentences
www.wikipedia.com
www.draglist.com/
www.nascar.com/
www.about.com
www.history.com
www.nhra.com
www.garlits.com/
www.sportsline.com/autoracing/
www.espn.com
www.autoracingdaily.com/
Citing Internet Sources
Please view the following slides in
order. Carefully read the text and
follow any instructions that are
given.
Sighting Sources Properly
When citing a source from the internet you
must first record as much information
about the site as possible. You will need
the Author/Authors names, date material
was published, title of article or
publication. You will also need to record
the date you accessed this material and
the URL it was found on.
Example of Properly Cited Sources
from the Internet
Author (Date Published). Title of article,
Date Retrieved, from URL
Gooch C. (2007). Online Research Tutorial,
retrieved November 23, 2007, from
http://www.tms.matsuk12.us/explore/appte
ch/capst.html