<iframe height="356" width="427" src="//www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/37279512"> </iframe> <div> <strong> <a>Evaluating Webpages</a> </strong> from <strong><a>hisled</a></strong> </div>

1. Evaluating Webpages

2. Being able to critically evaluate the information you encounter on
the web is a hugely valuable research skill. Why? Because so
much information can be found online, and not everything you
read is true. Sometimes information can be narrowly accurate,
but still be so biased, selective, or leading as to make the
information essentially useless for research purposes. Or the
information may have once been accurate, but is now simply too
out-of-date to be useful. Sometimes the authors are not experts
on what they are writing about. And sometimes the problem is
not the accuracy of the information you encounter, but the lack of
research-quality detail and substance.
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Introduction

3. Being a critical consumer of information is helpful
not only in our classes, but also in our daily lives.
Just as you need the information in your college
papers to be based on reliable, quality sources,
you also want the health advice, product reviews,
and other kinds of information you personally use
to be reliable.
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4. Consider these five criteria whenever evaluating web-based
information for potential use in your college-level research.
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5. Have you noticed how political advertisements on television end
with “I’m [insert a candidate], and I approved this message”? The
reasoning behind the law requiring this tag line is fairly simple. If
a candidate isn’t held personally accountable for the accuracy of
the ads he or she runs, they’re more likely to make wild and
irresponsible claims. By attaching their name (and reputation) to
the ad, the candidate is less likely to exaggerate the truth and
unfairly smear their opponent. That is the thinking, anyway.
The broader point is: Who is accepting responsibility for the
quality of the information on a given webpage? Is there author
or webmaster contact information provided?
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6. So how do you determine whether the information on a website
is accurate?
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7. See if the information is cited. What information sources does
the webpage site? A web-based article that includes references
or citations is far more likely to be accurate because the
information can be verified by going to the original sources. If a
website presents statistics, do the authors say where the
statistics come from?
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8. What about the website’s authority?
Once we know who’s responsible for a website or web-based
article, we can ask: are they an authority on the topic?
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9. Ask yourself:
• What are the author or organization’s credentials?
• Are any credentials even provided?
• Is the author qualified to write about this topic? What is
their area of expertise? Is the author affiliated with an
educational institution?
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10. When we talk about objectivity, we are largely talking about the
author’s objectives in producing and publishing the information.
Why does the website exist? What are the biases of the authors or
the organization behind the information? Bias isn’t necessarily
disqualifying. Just because an author or organization has a
particular point of view doesn’t mean that their information is
inaccurate or lacks authority. The very reason that many groups
exist is to advocate for a particular position, and to that end they
often collect or generate a lot of high-quality research. That said,
you will want to be aware of the biases of the authors or groups.
And in order to write a well-rounded paper, you will likely want to
collect information from other side sof the issue as well. When all
your information comes from just one side of a debate, your paper
may lack balance and perspective.
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11. Also pay close attention to the advertising that appears
on a website. The purpose of some websites is to sell a
particular product. While they may host articles as well,
the articles are basically just ads for the product. Also,
companies will occasionally run elaborate
advertisements on legitimate websites that can look
very similar to articles, but are in fact just promotional
materials. Do not be fooled.
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12. Ask yourself…
• Is the information fact, opinion, or propaganda?
• Is the information well-researched? Is there a
bibliography or citations or references at the end?
• Is the author objective and un-biased? You will always
want to be aware of what the author’s bias is.
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13. Some research projects require very up-to-date
information in order to be accurate. For example, if you
are researching present-day population statistics, you
won’t want to use the 1980 census figures. When we talk
about currency, we are talking about how current the
information is in a book or article. For some projects
older information might be fine. But for many research
topics, currency is a major concern.
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14. Ask yourself:
• When was the information published or produced? Many
webpages, though not all, will note the date of their most
recent update at the bottom of the page.
• How many dead links are on the site? This is important to
check, as millions of websites have been created and
abandoned in the last 20 years.
• If statistics are provided, when were they produced or
gathered?
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15. Earlier when we talked about objectivity, we also talked about bias.
While bias is not inherently bad, you do not want your total pool of
resources to reflect the same bias. Otherwise you are only getting
part of the picture.
In part, this is what “coverage” asks: what part of the picture are
you getting with your information resource? Is the material
presented at an appropriate level? Does it extensively or minimally
cover the topic? Does the resource add new information or does it
simply compile information easily found elsewhere?
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16. Accuracy
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Remember, if you need assistance, ask a librarian.