How to Evaluate Websites

When you’re doing research for one of your classes, it’s important that you have the most reliable information possible. The internet is a great place to start because there’s so much information available. However, it’s important to remember that ANYONE can post online, which means that some of the information you find on the internet is not going to be trustworthy.

Today we’re going to talk about the criteria you should use to make sure that you only use sources you can trust. If you’d like to follow along, you can find the link to this presentation below the video. There are six basic criteria for evaluating websites: Purpose and audience, authority and credibility, accuracy and reliability, currency and timeliness, objectivity or bias, and structure and navigation.

To explore these criteria, we’re going to use three practice websites. These websites are linked at the bottom of each slide, but you can also find the links below this video. Let’s imagine that you’re doing a research paper about school uniforms.

You want to know if uniforms help students do better in school, and you’ve found these three potential sources. How can we decide if we can trust this information? First, we must look at the purpose and audience.

To do this, ask yourself the following questions: Who is the intended audience of the site? Is the site scholarly or popular? Is the site trying to sell something?

To entertain? To persuade? And what is the overall purpose of the site?

Answering these questions can help you decide if you can trust this information. Right now, pause the video and visit the three practice sites. As you explore them, try to answer these four questions.

The first website is Bargain Babe’s blog post, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Who is the target audience? Looking at the writer’s words, she seems to be addressing parents, especially moms.

While parents might know a lot about school uniforms, their information is probably based on personal experience, and not verifiable facts. But there are other problems with this website’s purpose. Did you notice the links to online stores, such as Gap and Polo?

What about the notice that the post contains affiliate links? An affiliate link is when a business pays a website to send them internet traffic. So one of the purposes of this website is to generate revenue for the blogger.

This means that she’s more likely to tell you information that will send you to these websites, and she might leave out information that doesn’t help her make money. Now let’s look at the next website and try to answer the same questions. On the surface, it might seem like this website is giving you good information about the advantages of school uniforms, but before you use it for your research, you should ask: What is the purpose of this site, who is the audience, and what clues do we have to figure this out?

First, this website is definitely trying to sell something. We see clues like “Customer Service” and “Free Shipping. ” Because this site is trying to sell school uniforms, they might leave out any information that shows the disadvantages of school uniforms.

Second, the website’s audience appears to be parents or school systems interested in purchasing uniforms. The ultimate purpose of this website is to sell a product, not to provide information. Now let’s look at the third website, by the U.

S. Department of Education. If you want to learn more about a website, look to see if they have an About page or a Mission Statement.

You can often find it at the very top or the very bottom of the page. This can tell you the purpose of the website. As you can see here, one of the Department of Education’s goals is “Collecting data on America's schools and disseminating research.

” This website isn’t trying to sell something or try to persuade you--its purpose is to provide information. The next criterion looks at the person or people responsible for the website. You want to make sure that the information is by someone who can be trusted and is qualified to write about this information.

Ask yourself: Can the author of the site be identified? What are the author's qualifications? Do you think the author has expertise on the subject?

Also look to see if the site is affiliated with a particular organization, and check out the domain of the site, which can tell you more about who’s responsible for it. Now pause the video and return to our three practice sites. Take a few minutes to evaluate the authority and credibility of these sites.

First, let’s look at Bargain Babe. Does this title sound like a good source for scholarly information? Next, let’s look at the author.

We have her name, but it isn’t linked, and exploring the website doesn’t reveal any information about her. If you can’t find any information about an author, try doing a Google search for that person’s name. In this case, we can’t find anything about Rachelle Romberg that qualifies her as a scholarly expert on the advantages of school uniforms.

If we look at the About page for Parker School Uniforms, we see that they seem to know a lot about uniforms. But notice that their knowledge is about making and buying uniforms, not about whether uniforms help students do better in school. Next, look at the U.

S. Department of Education. As we know from the about page, this website collects data specifically about education, so this source is much more qualified to discuss the effects of uniforms on student’s success in school.

So let’s look at the accuracy and reliability of the site. Good sources will tell you where they got their information, and they’ll appear professional and well-edited. Right now, pause the video and take a few minutes to look at the practice sites.

Answer the following questions: Does the site appear to be well-researched? Does the site include the sources of the information? Does the site include grammatical, spelling, or typographical errors?

How does the site compare to library resources available on the topic? Remember it’s always a good idea to check library resources to see if you can find a better source for your information. A reliable source will get their information from other reliable sources.

Let’s think about where “Bargain Babe” gets its information. The first quote comes from Read Maria. Who is this person?

Is she an expert, or, more likely, just somebody who likes to read the blog? Also look out for weasel words, which appeal to an anonymous authority without providing any real evidence. Now let’s take a look at the information provided by Parker School Uniforms.

The website says: Successful people are known around the world for wearing the same thing almost every single day” and “This same mentality reaches into the school systems, giving your students the energy to keep their minds on what they're learning, leading to improved student involvement and improved test scores. ” At first, this might seem like good information to include in your paper. But there are a couple of problems.

First, the source uses weasel words. Who are these successful people? Why don’t they provide a specific example or quote from one of these people?

Second, the source doesn’t tell you where it gets its information from. Do school uniforms lead to improved student involvement and test scores? Don’t just take their word for it--they need to cite their sources.

Where is the research that proves this to be true? Finally, we have the Department of Education website. This article contains a lot of information, and it tells you where this information comes from.

Sometimes an article will link to the source of information or they might include the name of the source in the sentence. Either way, make sure you know where the information comes from. Then, you should check these sources to make sure they’re reliable.

When evaluating websites, you should also make the information is timely and up-to-date. This is especially important for topics that change quickly, such as medicine, technology, and politics. Now pause the video, visit the practice websites, and ask yourself these questions: When was this information published?

When was the page most recently updated? Does the page include references to recent events of developments? Are there dead links on the page?

Here are a few ways you can determine how recently a website was published. First, look for a publication date, usually at the top of a post, near the author’s name. If you can’t find a publication date, look for a “last updated” or “copyright” date.

This is sometimes at the very bottom of a page. You should also make sure that the sources used by the website are recent. For example, we can see that the Department of Education is citing a source from 2013.

Finally, look out for broken links or missing pages. This is a sign that the page hasn’t been updated in a while, and some of the information might be out of date. Finally, when you’re evaluating a website, you want to find information that is based in fact.

It should not be based in emotion or personal opinion. Now take a minute to visit our practice sites to see if you can determine how objective they are. Ask these questions: Does the site present multiple viewpoints or just one?

Can you tell if the site presents mostly opinions or facts? Can you identify any bias in the information presented? Is the site sponsored by a company or organization?

Think about how this might affect the way they present the information. Finally, if there are advertisements, are they easy to distinguish from the information? When you look at Bargain Babe, it looks like it’s presenting multiple viewpoints.

After all, it lists both pros and cons. However, there’s a problem--all of the viewpoints are just personal opinions, without including in outside evidence to support these ideas. The website for Parker School Uniforms does include some evidence, but they only present a one-sided point of view.

Remember, if a source is trying to sell something, they’re probably not going to give you any negative information about that topic. Finally, the source from the Department of Education does both things well: It includes both sides of the issue, because it mentions how bullying overall has decreased, but acknowledges that one kind of bullying--cyberbullying--has increased. This paragraph also tells us that they got their information from the National Crime Victimization Survey.

This source is reliable because instead of using personal opinions, it uses a verifiable outside source. If you use the open web to conduct research, it’s important for you to make sure that you evaluate the Purpose, Authority, Accuracy, Timeliness, and Objectivity of your source. Here are a few final things to think about as you begin your research.

. . Is this information appropriate for your particular project?

What are the expectations of your professor? (Some require only peer-reviewed scholarly articles! ) Have you tried to find the same (or better) information through the library databases?

Would you be able to defend the quality of this source, using the given criteria? Remember, you’re responsible for the quality of the information you use. Think critically about what you’re reading and select your sources carefully.

For more information, you can contact your librarian. We can help you determine if your information is reliable.