Web Research 
In Nature, Webs are Traps ... In Academic Research, Is the Web a Trap?

Nowadays, most people on a college campus with internet access first turn to the web for information. You know what I mean. Here's an example: your instructor has asked you to find information about studying while listening to music. You forgot about the assignment until now, the weekend before you must present it orally  in class. Quick! You get to a computer, go to Goggle and type in  studying +"listening to music"  Whew! You're safe! Your search turned up about 1,170,000 websites with information about listneing to music while you study. You click on the first three, read them, copy and paste a few lines and pictures into a PowerPoint file and, Bingo!, you're ready for your presentation.  This college research stuff isn't hard at all.

Well, you got lucky and found good information on those first three websites ... but do you really know its good information? There are several things you should do to evaluate the information you find on the web.

Here are the important things to look out for: 

  • the URL
  • the author
  • the date
Why Evaluate Webpages? http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/EvaluateWhy.html
How to Evaluate Webpages:http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html

Now that you have looked at the above pages, compare two web pages about studying +"listening to music"

Click here for a web page evaluation checklist
         

 

Laurie Miller
Email:llmiller@gmu.edu
Last Update: February 2009


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