photo by Swiv
There is a huge number of sources you can use choose from when you have to write a text. You can decide to use paper sources (such as: books, reviews, journals, essays, reports, articles, pamphlets, etc.), or online ones (websites). Judging sources can be very difficult and time-demanding, but it’s indispensable if you want your text to be reliable.
When I started searching materials for my thesis I preferred using paper sources since I thought that they were more reliable than the online ones. Anyone can publish anything he/she wants to on the web and there is often no way of checking or verifying what has been divulged. However, I soon changed my mind since not all online material is bad; there are a lot of interesting and reliable sites on the web and I used them as sources of my paper.
I never stop to be amazed by the huge amount of websites and information available on the Web; you just have to write a word in the apposite bar and the search engine will find all the websites that contain that word. However, search engines like Google show both relevant and irrelevant sites. In order to narrow down you researches you can be more specific when writing the key words, or you can do advanced searches (in this way, you can find for examples many academic files by eminent professors). You can also use other useful online tools, such as Del.icio.us; after having registered to this website, you can look for sites and read how people commented them. As you can read in the tips from the University of Essex, you can use also meta-search engines (like Mamma) and specialized search engines (such as Google Scholbar), which can help you to quickly find what you are looking for.
Reading through the Pardue Online Writing Lab (OWL) and the San Diego State University websites, I noticed that there are several criteria to use in order to judge the sources of information, both online or not. I must admit that I’ve used them almost always, since my supervisor clearly explained them to me when I was writing my thesis.
First of all, I always need to have clear in mind what is the subject of my paper and what I need to search for; then I have to decide where I could find what I need. This criteria are clearly stated in the Pardue (Owl): “You will need to make decisions about what to search for, where to look, and once you've found material on your topic, whether to use it in your paper."
Then I pay attention to the author of the text; if I don’t know him/her, I try to find out what he/she wrote, his/her profession and career. Sometimes it may be a bit difficult and time-demanding to find the author of an online text. It is often very important to look at the publisher or the producer of the text.
Then I read the preface and the table of content, in order to find out why the author decided to write his/her work and to what audience he/she aimed to refer. The table of content gives also a quick overview of the main points discussed in the text.
When you are searching for a website the URL can be very important since the domain can inform you about the organization that hosts the website. If the URL ends in .org the organization is no-profit; if it ends in .com the site belongs to a commercial organization, while if it ends in .edu or .ac it concerns an educational authority.
I always check the publication date, especially when I search for online sources. I try to notice when the website was created and its last update, since it’s very important to use current information.
Finally, I read through the bibliography in order to see if the material the author used is valuable or not. In the bibliography I can find further sources that I can use to broaden my research.
I found particularly useful and interesting the following five questions published by the Monash University's online library tutorial:
-Who is responsible for the site - is there a name and contact address?
When I started searching materials for my thesis I preferred using paper sources since I thought that they were more reliable than the online ones. Anyone can publish anything he/she wants to on the web and there is often no way of checking or verifying what has been divulged. However, I soon changed my mind since not all online material is bad; there are a lot of interesting and reliable sites on the web and I used them as sources of my paper.
I never stop to be amazed by the huge amount of websites and information available on the Web; you just have to write a word in the apposite bar and the search engine will find all the websites that contain that word. However, search engines like Google show both relevant and irrelevant sites. In order to narrow down you researches you can be more specific when writing the key words, or you can do advanced searches (in this way, you can find for examples many academic files by eminent professors). You can also use other useful online tools, such as Del.icio.us; after having registered to this website, you can look for sites and read how people commented them. As you can read in the tips from the University of Essex, you can use also meta-search engines (like Mamma) and specialized search engines (such as Google Scholbar), which can help you to quickly find what you are looking for.
Reading through the Pardue Online Writing Lab (OWL) and the San Diego State University websites, I noticed that there are several criteria to use in order to judge the sources of information, both online or not. I must admit that I’ve used them almost always, since my supervisor clearly explained them to me when I was writing my thesis.
First of all, I always need to have clear in mind what is the subject of my paper and what I need to search for; then I have to decide where I could find what I need. This criteria are clearly stated in the Pardue (Owl): “You will need to make decisions about what to search for, where to look, and once you've found material on your topic, whether to use it in your paper."
Then I pay attention to the author of the text; if I don’t know him/her, I try to find out what he/she wrote, his/her profession and career. Sometimes it may be a bit difficult and time-demanding to find the author of an online text. It is often very important to look at the publisher or the producer of the text.
Then I read the preface and the table of content, in order to find out why the author decided to write his/her work and to what audience he/she aimed to refer. The table of content gives also a quick overview of the main points discussed in the text.
When you are searching for a website the URL can be very important since the domain can inform you about the organization that hosts the website. If the URL ends in .org the organization is no-profit; if it ends in .com the site belongs to a commercial organization, while if it ends in .edu or .ac it concerns an educational authority.
I always check the publication date, especially when I search for online sources. I try to notice when the website was created and its last update, since it’s very important to use current information.
Finally, I read through the bibliography in order to see if the material the author used is valuable or not. In the bibliography I can find further sources that I can use to broaden my research.
I found particularly useful and interesting the following five questions published by the Monash University's online library tutorial:
-Who is responsible for the site - is there a name and contact address?
-What is its rationale - is it endorsing a particular viewpoint to the exclusion of other views?
-Is there a reference list or bibliography of corroborative evidence?
-Is there a date when the site was last updated - how long ago did this happen?
-Does the site seem to be permanent or part of a permanent organisation?
Veronica
Veronica
5 commenti:
Hi Veronica,
I enjoyed reading through your post. You explained in a clear way what people are supposed to do in order to evaluate a website. Moreover, you added many links which allow the reader to know something more about this subject.
As I wrote on my post, I share your prejudice against online sources. However,like you, I’m slowly changing my mind. There’s a lot of rubbish on the Web but you can find also interesting and reliable websites. Basically, this is the reason why I love this course! It opens new perspectives. Don’t you think?
Well, I’d like to reflect on what you said about search engines. To begin with, you wrote Google Scholbar. Actually, it’s not Google Scholbar but Google Scholar! This search engine enables you to find interesting material to write a paper. You can find articles, essays and much more.What about advanced search? I love it, too! It helps you to eliminate a lot of results. For example, I usually put the words which occur together within inverted commas. You can even use boolean operators! Do you use them?
Del.icio.us can be an interesting tool for researching information. As you said, you can find even comments on the websites. But, do you really trust in them? I mean, if you’re looking for a wesite as a source for your thesis do you trust in people you don’t even know?
See you tomorrow
Silvia
Hi Veronica!
I'm spending my whole afternoon reading all the posts, and now it's your turn to get my comment!
So here I am!
I perfectly agree with you when you state that "When I started searching materials for my thesis I preferred using paper sources since I thought that they were more reliable than the online ones". I had the same doubts and I preferred books rather than online documents, as well as you and Silvia did!
Furthermore, I appreciate the fat that you well explained the tip Sarah suggested us, that is to say, the use of the Google's advanced search!
I also liked your explanation of the different characteristics of URLs, which can be very useful in order to evaluate the reliability of a web source.
As for peer-reviewing, here are a number of remarks which will help you to improve your writing skills:
- "There is a huge number of sources you can use choose from when you have to write a text".
In the first sentence of your post there's something wrong, or better, something missing in the middle of the sentences!
Check your rough copy if you did it, maybe you forgot something!
- I would not use the word "indispenable" because I find it a little odd! It would be more suitable to use "necessary" or "essential".
- "I never stop to be amazed"
Here I would say "I'll never stop being amazed".
- "This criteria are..."
Here there's a problem with the matching of the singular demonstrative pronoun and the verb in the plural form! Remember that the latin word "criteria" is plural, so that you should use "These" instead of "this".
That's all for today!
Hope you find my comment interesting and useful!
See you soon!
Camilla
Hi Veronica!
How are you?
What a nice post of yours! I can say that you wrote a very detailed report on what are the main criteria that you use when you have to evaluate a website.
I appreciated the fact that you manage to summarize all the main aspects of your judging process and you focused the attention on those elements that you consider more relevant.
I completely agree with you when you say that you would never stop being amazed ‘by the huge amount of websites and information available on the Web’. It’s the same for me!
A few minutes ago I tried Google Scholar for the first time! I am a Google fun but I’d never tried Google Scholar before! Thanks to you, Elena and Silvia I finally discovered it!
As for peer-reviewing, I think that Camilla gave you a brilliant report of the
basic oversights you came across.
As she pointed out, I’d use ‘essential’ rather than ‘indispensable’; I’d write ‘these criteria are’; I’d prefer the form ‘I’d never stop being amazed by’.
In the end I think that the first sentence of your post could sound like this: ‘There is a wide range of sources you can refer to when you have to write a text’.
See you soon! =)
cheers
Hi Veronica!
Great job again! The criteria we think are the most important when judging a source are more or less the same; anyway, you especially stressed the importance of what we should do before effectively starting our research: reflecting on the subject of the paper we’re going to write, what we need to search for and, then, where we can find the sources (i.e. in a library or online). I agree on that! This is an aspect I haven’t pointed out in my post; however, it’s worth mentioning!
Unlike Silvia, Camilla and you, I used online sources a lot for my thesis! The point is that I didn't have many alternatives since there wasn’t so much literature on paper about the topic I discussed; I assume this can easily happen in research fields that are developing nowadays, e.g. Computational and Corpora Linguistics, Sociolinguistics. Hence I can only thank the Internet for its existence!!! Using the Internet a lot for my thesis urged me to learn what criteria I had to use to judge online documents; more or less I used the same checklist you included in your post. However, thanks to this e-tivity, I understood the importance of checking the URL of a webpage and the organization hosting it much more.
True that the Net is full of rubbish, but if you have a critical eye and know the tools you have at your disposal to filter useless information out, Internet can only be a rich source! Take this tip I found reading a book for my exam in foreign language teaching: the speed at which new technologies enable us to find out the information we need does not eliminate the slow and deep process of assessing, understanding and internalizing it. I think this idea perfectly fits with our discussion. Doesn’t it?
Though I agree with the corrections Camilla highlighted in her comment, you always write in plain English and this makes all your works very readable! Excellent!
Elena
Hi Veronica!
Thanks for having written my mistake for the word "Address". I'm always confused with the German word "Adresse" and I never remember which language has one "D" and which one has double "D"! :-)
As for you post, I agree with you when you say that "Judging sources can be very difficult and time-demanding". You are perfectly right! Like Martina wrote in her blog, it is a problem of time to answer every time to the questions about author, updating, bibliography and so on...!
I read that we check the same things when we try to evaluate the reliability of a web source. I saw also that, like me, you put the Monash University's online library tutorial. I found it really useful and I think it summarize very well the steps we have to follow in order to evaluate a web page.
So, thanks a lot for your contribution! :-)
Marina
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