Discriminating On-Line Sources

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How not to "fertilize" unintentionally

The biggest advantage to the internet is also its biggest drawback. Because anyone can access the internet, anyone can post information on the web, and there is no one to verify that the information is accurate. There was a recent case where someone posted a "joke" on the internet encyclopedia, "Wikipedia" that was slanderous. That is not to say that Wiki posts are always inaccurate. There is massive amounts of accurate and valuable information available through WikiPedia and other Wiki community sites. In fact, Applied Tech students will be using their own "Wiki" to collaborate on their capstone projects! The below information will help you determine what information you read on the website is accurate or may have problems. This page will help you examine a web site to determine how accurate or reliable a website is likely to be. There is NO guarantee and caveat emptor.

The first thing you need to do when you visit a potential web site source is to look at the top-level domain itself. If the top-level domain is .edu or .org, then you know that the site resides either on a non-profit organization or an educational organization. That doesn't make the site authorative in itself, just as a top-level domain of .com or .net does not make the site unreliable; however, it is the first thing you should look at.

Next, look at the URL of the site... after the site name (example teaching.rwpservice.com), look at the path (/index.html). If the path starts with a tilde (~), then you know that the website is a personal home page, and may or may not be accurate and authorative.

Next, look at the page content. See when it was last modified. This information is normally on the bottom of the web page. If it is not, assume the page is dated. Look for an email address of the author. Look for a biography or other information about the author. If the author of the page has a Ph.D. in Particle Physics and the web site is about particle physics, then chances are the page is authorative. If the author of the page is a high school student and the page is about particle physics, then there's a good chance that there will be more authorative sites available for that information. However, if the same high school student published a page about life in the school where she or he attends, then chances are the page has some authorative information.

The next stage takes some careful reading and sophistication. As you read the material, see if the author is trying to convince you to one extreme or another. Are the words presenting the material in a slanted fashion? Are there words that seem to encourage an emotional response? Does something seem "right" or "wrong" about the site? If any of these questions can be answered "yes" or "maybe", then there is a chance that the author of the page is presenting material with some sort of bias.

It is important for you to understand a bias, by itself, is not bad. We all have bias based on our upbringing, education, where and when we've lived, and our personality and friends. When bias becomes a problem is in situations where the bias is causing facts to be distorted, misstated, omitted, or denied. If you use a page with an obvious bias, be sure you are aware of that bias and don't let it mislead you.

Another important point, and this is one that many students don't like to hear: NEVER depend on a single source! Go to another source, on a different web site, and see what that source reports. In many cases, you should visit three or four different sites for each query.

Finally, as you locate sources and take notes on those sources, be sure to get the full URL, the date, and the time you accessed the page. No, you don't need to print the page out! Take notes! The full URL is everything from the http:// to the last character in the address. Your URL IS NEVER the URL of the search engine!