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WEB SITE EVALUATION

ENGLISH 115

Hudson Valley Community College Marvin Library Learning Commons

Before using a Website, consider…

• Accuracy of the Website: Does the information seem accurate? Are the facts verifiable?

• Authority of the Website: Who is the author? What expertise does he or she have on this topic? Who sponsors the site? Check the domain name to see if it is a university, business, organization, or an individual.

• Objectivity of the Website: What is the stated purpose of the site? Check the "About..." link if there is one. What position or opinion is presented and does it seem biased? What kind of sites does this one link to?

• Currency of the Website: On what date was the page created? Do you need more current information? Do links on the site still connect to their destination?

• Use for Research: Should you use this information in a college research paper?

Evaluating Your Online Sources

Authority Can you tell who the author is? Consider the

author’s credentials. Do you know for sure that they’re a doctor or an expert on their topic?

Currency Start with the most recent information. Some web

sites don’t get updated on a regular basis.

Relevancy Is this really what you were looking for? Always double-check your facts when things

seem suspicious.

Can you tell from the web address if the site is legitimate? Can you tell from the web page if the author’s credentials have meaning? Did you notice some of the words were misspelled? Let’s look at the documentation. Remember that any one can put any thing on the web. Read critically and question when it doesn’t make sense.

Note that this was a critical thinking assignment to help point out the dangers of accepting everything you read on the Web. Now let’s look at some examples of good web sites.

American Memory:http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html

The United States Library of Congress provides free and open access through the Web to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience on the American Memory web site.

Doing research on American history? Check out the Library of Congress!

Avalon Project:http://avalon.law.yale.edu/

Yale Law School’s Avalon Project provides access to historical documents in the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government.

Need access to primary documents from the past? Try the Avalon Project.

United Nations:http://www.un.org/en/

The UN web site serves as a center for harmonizing the actions of nations to attack global challenges..

If you are dealing with a global issue, find the organizations that deal with the entire world like the United Nations.

United States Census:http://www.census.gov/

The United States Census Bureau gathers all kinds of population information every ten years. This information can be used for those doing research in genealogy as well as statistics compiled for a wide variety of reasons.

Consider who gathers the information that becomes statistics that you see in research.

American FactFinder:http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml

American FactFinder provides access to data about the United States, Puerto Rico and the Island Areas. The data in American FactFinder come from several censuses and surveys.

Often census information is difficult to search. Some sites help to break down this information.

Gallup Poll:http://www.gallup.com/home.aspx

Gallup has studied human nature and behavior for more than 75 years. Gallup employs many of the world's leading scientists in management, economics, psychology, and sociology. A Gallup poll tries to identify and monitor behavioral economic and political indicators worldwide.

Opinion polls often can provide needed statistics. Use a reliable source.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

http://www.cdc.gov/

CDC.gov provides users with credible, reliable health information on: diseases and conditions, emergencies and disasters, environmental health, healthy living, injury, violence, safety, life stages, travelers' health, etc.

Health information from the web is widely available but not always accurate. Use reliable medical sources.

PubMed Health:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/

PubMed Health offers up-to-date information on diseases, conditions, drugs, treatment, and healthy living, with a special focus on comparative effectiveness research from institutions around the world. It is produced by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, part of the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health.

Some public databases try to provide free access to reliable medical information.

USA.gov:

If you are exploring laws and government of a country, it is important to look at the information they publish about themselves. Use the search box of the A-Z List of Agencies or topics to get started.

http://www.usa.gov/

USA.gov makes it easy for the public to get U.S. government information and services on the web.

Citing Web Sites Can be Difficult

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We do web sites last in this class because they can be difficult to cite. The idea behind citing web sites for both APA and MLA is to give the reader a way to access the same source that the author found. This can be difficult as the web changes constantly.

For APA remember to include the URL (web address) after Retrieved from. The retrieved from date only needs to be included if the information may change on that page.

For MLA 7, you don’t need the URL, but you do need the publisher and date, often found at the bottom/top of a web page.

Citation Maker: EasyBib.com

Citation makers are only as good as the information you put into them. EasyBib makes web sites easy to produce in MLA format. They charge for APA. For web citations for MLA , copy the web address into the box and hit Cite It. Be willing to look at the web page and fill in the information it missed.

Citation Maker: Study Mode

StudyMode does not charge to create citations. You will need to fill in the boxes to create the citation. Ads may be overwhelming on these free citation makers.

For this Session:

Complete the Internet Exercise for APA or MLA.Draft 4 includes 3 annotated citations from 3 reliable web sites. When selecting web sites:• Don’t pick sites designed only to sell something. • Check for About this Site or About Us usually at the

top/bottom of the page. • If something seems suspicious, Google information

about this authority on another site. • Make sure information is up-to-date for current topics.

Copyright dates may be at the bottom of the page. • Don’t list Wikipedia as a source. Check their

References, and track down and cite from that source.