|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Guten Tag! Salutations! Howdy and welcome! I am glad to see you! Here we will be investigating a very important topic: Website
Validity. We all spend countless hours on the World Wide Web and just as easily as it can be a great ally, it can also be
our enemy by filling our heads (and research papers) with nonsense. There are a few steps I will cover here to help us all
avoid using and believing in websites that do not deserve our time! So fasten your web trotting seat belts, let's get started!
I know we all want to be smarter!! I feel like one of my main purposes here on earth is to cram as much knowledge as humanly
possible into my head, then turn and share it with the world in the same way it has been shared with me. I think the networks
and connections we build throughout life are, at the very basis, means of gaining more knowledge than we previously had. Here
I am sharing with you something I have learned in hope that you can find use for it as well, apply it and (in my hopes) share
it with someone else. My name is Katy Minchew and I know you care if what you read/research is valid. If my presumptions are
correct, I advise you to consider the following things when viewing a website for the first time and each and everything you
do research of any fashion!
|
|
|
WEBSITE VALIDITY CHECKLIST
____ Have a look at the URL: Sites ending with
.gov or .edu are generally sites you can rest easy about.
____ Who is the author?: Can you even find a person claiming
responsibility for this work? If a person will not even take credit for the work or put their name beside their opinion -
chances are, you would not want to site them anyway!
____ Author Credentials: In the case there is an author
listed,
do they give a break down about why they are the expert about this thing you are researching or interested in? Everyone has
the ability to speak - not everyone knows what they are talking about!
____ Is there a Point?: Does the author have
a point? Does he/she have a reason for their writing? Does the writer stick to the topic of the website?
____ General
Feel: Is the grammar/spelling of a educated
manner? Is the site well organized? Does the information presented flow from
one point to another?
____ WHEN was that?: there are many, many sites out and about that are outdated or have not
been updated in a very long time; these sites should be avoided. We have to make sure that what we are using to validate our
points is pertinent to the present.
____ Citing: Does the author give references or a sources sited section to help
validate the points he/she makes?
____ Familiarity?: Another thing is the idea that something is correct just because
it is commonly considered to be. When you are researching you cannot take anything for face value, you have to dig!
Works
Cited:
Harris, Robert. "Evaluating Internet Research Sources." 1997. Internet. 4 April, 2007. http://www.virtualsalt.com/evalu8it.htm
Lamb, Annette. Evaluating Internet Resources. 2005. Internet. 5 April, 2007. http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic32.htm
Last Updated:
6 April 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
Please get in touch with any comments or reactions to my site.
"I think, therefore I am" -- Rene Descartes'
|
|
|
|
