Research on the Web
For your research paper, you are required to use at least one source from the World Wide Web. These sources do not include full-text online journal articles or primary documents found using the library online database. Rather, these sources are found using generic and meta-search engines, such as google and dogpile. You cannot use Wikipedia as a source in your essay. The below material will introduce you to internet site evaluation, and several different search engines. The list of sample site are designed to be used with a classroom exercise and discussion.
Evaluating Internet Sites
The below critera--the CARS Checklist--are borrowed from Evaluating Internet Research Sources, by Robert Harris. Please read entire document on your own time, as the below is merely a summary of a much more complex discussion.
The CARS Checklist (Credibility, Accuracy, Reasonableness, Support) is designed for ease of learning and use. Few sources will meet every criterion in the list, and even those that do may not possess the highest level of quality possible. But if you learn to use the criteria in this list, you will be much more likely to separate the high quality information from the poor quality information.
Credibility
trustworthy source, author’s credentials, evidence of quality control, known or respected authority, organizational
support.
Goal: an authoritative source, a source that supplies some good evidence that allows you to trust it.
Accuracy
up to date, factual, detailed, exact, comprehensive, audience and purpose reflect intentions of completeness
and accuracy.
Goal: a source that is correct today (not yesterday), a source that gives the whole truth.
Reasonableness
fair, balanced, objective, reasoned,no conflict of interest, absence of fallacies or slanted tone.
Goal: a source that engages the subject thoughtfully and reasonably, concerned with the truth.
Support
listed sources, contact information, available corroboration, claims supported, documentation supplied.
Goal: a source that provides convincing evidence for the claims made, a source you can triangulate (find at least two other sources that support it).
However, by looking only at the information presented on the page and not critically at how the information is being presented, we are taking away an integral part of Web research, which is reading the page itself. When we begin to read web pages, when we are able to look critically at the politics behind who is presenting the information, all web pages become useful, depending on the topic of the essay. For example, conisder the possibility of coming across these web pages:
- The Hoax of the Twentieth Century: The Case Against The Presumed Extermination Of European Jewry
- The Top 40 Reasons to Doubt the Official Story of September 11, 2001
Conducting Internet Searches
There are two types of search engines: those that search online within their own database (google, yahoo, msn, and so forth), and those that search multiple search engines, or meta-search engines. See Meta-Search Engines from UC Berkeley for more information on meta-search engines. Regardless of which type of search engine you use, it is important to explore the results deeper than the first 20 results. Often gems are hidden deep within results pages. Below are links to various search engines:
- doppile: meta-search
- mamma: meta-search
- surfwax: meta-search
- all the web fastsearch: meta-search
- google blog search
- icerocket blog search
- technorati blog search
- google video search
- you tube
- ifilm
Sample Search Results
For each of the below web sites, complete the following:
- identify the type of text: frame or case (discussion or primary)
- use the CARS checklist to determine if it is a reliable source
- regardless of its reliability, discuss how it could be useful depending on an essay topic
- The Gulf War
- George Bush Address to the Nation 16 Jan 1991 in The George Bush Digital Archive
- Frontline: The Gulf War
- GulfLink: Office of the Special Assistant for Gulf War Illnesses
- The Gulf War Syndrome Message Board
- Skepticism: Gulf War Syndrome
- Gulf War Veterans Resource Pages