2. Internet Research
Internet research is an easy
way to obtain information
about your topic.
However, not everything
online is college-level
quality
Evaluating the quality of a
website involves looking at:
Credibility
Objectivity
Currency
3. Criteria for Internet Research
Credibility
Can you establish who wrote the article? Do they have
the necessary credentials?
Objectivity
Is the author presenting an objective point of view or a
biased opinion?
Currency
Is this information current? For some topics like
technology, the environment, and medical advances,
you should use only the most current information.
4. Determining Website Credibility
We’ll look at six websites
Try to determine if they meet the
criteria for internet research or not.
What principle of internet research
might they violate?
Note: these websites may contain
copyrighted material and are used only
for educational purposes
6. Verdict: Not Credible
Why not?
Wikipedia is a great source of general
information for personal use. However, for
college level research, you should use primary
resources where you can check the validity and
credibility of the information directly.
8. Verdict: Not Objective
Why not?
Blogs can be created by anyone who wants one.
Just because someone writes something doesn’t
mean they are qualified to do so or that they are
presenting a balanced view.
Most people use blogs to share their personal
views.
Most blogs are not research based or peer
reviewed.
10. Verdict: Not current
Why not?
There is NO DATE on this website, so it’s
impossible to tell how current the information is.
When it comes to a scientific topic, it’s best to
find the most current information possible, as
the information is constantly evolving.
It’s a good rule of thumb that if you can’t find an
author or date, don’t use the website.
12. Verdict: Credible
Journal Articles are usually upfront about
who wrote them and the credentials of that
person.
Most journals note up front as well whether
or not they are peer-reviewed and scholarly.
If you can find all the information about the
author and date, there’s a good chance it’s a
credible source of information.
14. Verdict: Objective
Empirical studies tend to be objective and
contain vast amounts of information
Anything contained on a Research Network as
well will probably be peer-reviewed and
deemed scholarly as well.
16. Verdict: Current
The date is clearly stated on this document.
As I created this PowerPoint activity during
2012, one can safely assume a 2012 document
is a current source of information for Global
Warming.
Other information on this website would also
indicate that this is a scholarly source of
information.
17. Works Cited
A list of sources used in a presentation
Use a uniform style
APA
MLA
Designed to enable someone else to
locate the supporting material you
used
18. Citing Sources of Information
Correctly
Works Cited Entry
Internal References
Verbal Citations
(your book calls them
“Oral citations”)
19. Which citation is which?
Harter, L. A. (2008). Human Internal
Communication (3rd ed.).
McGraw-Hill Publications. references
“According to James Darnell, a
researcher for the Institute of Works Cited
Higher Learning…” Entry
At the same time, their levels
of absenteeism declined Verbal (Oral)
(Oyserman, Beebe, & Terry, Citations
2006)
20. Help with MLA
Use these helpful websites to find out more
about citing sources.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/search.php
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/74
7/2/
http://www.easybib.com/
For Verbal Citations, read this:
http://libguides.greenriver.edu/content.php?pid
=53310&sid=2604145