Internet Research Tips
If you're lucky, you have a teacher who doesn't mind if you do research on the internet, and may even expect it. That's the good news.
The bad news is that not everything you find on the internet constitutes good research. What's worse, if your teacher is fairly net-savvy, they will expect you to not only find sources of information on the web, but to evaluate them as well. This adds another layer of work and responsibility to you, the writer. Gone are the days when you could just go down to the library, take a few notes out of an encyclopedia, and call it a day. You need to be much more sophisticated in your approach to research.
In the old days, you had to be an expert to post something on the internet, and everyone who read what you posted generally took it at face value, because the internet was only open to people who were experts. Now, everyone has internet access, and anyone can--and does--post whatever they like on the internet. So how are you to decide whether the web page you've found contains academically acceptable information or not?
You need to be diligent and informed, because you will have to judge, and sometimes you will judge wrong. If in doubt, ask your teacher or librarian. There is always help available.
My Criteria
These are the criteria I use to evaluate web resources. If your instructor has other criteria, you should use those.
The Address
First, look at the URL (what appears in the address bar).
Anyone can register a website that ends in .com, .org, or .net. That doesn't mean that such a site, just that such a site needs a closer look.
URL's that end in ".edu" (US) or ".ac.uk" (UK) point to sites operated by legitimate educational institutions. (Althouh in the US, for-profit educational institutions can also register a ".edu" address.) In general, I trust what they are telling me, especially when I am looking at a page presented by a department or organization within that institution, such as the OWL at Purdue (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/) or the Bodleian Library at Oxford University (http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk), rather than an individual student's page, or even an instructor's page (remember, Timothy Leary once taught at Harvard).
URL's that end in ".gov" point to sites operated by the United States government, and URL's that end in ".gov.uk" point to sites operated by Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. Generally, these sites are very reliable, as they mostly present statistical information.
The Author
Second, look at the author. Is there an "About this site" or an "About the Author" page that gives further information about who wrote this?
Does the writer provide their full name? (My full name is at the bottom of nearly every page on this website. That doesn't mean that I'm automatically an expert, but it does mean that I have nothing to hide.)
Do they tell you where they went to college or university, and what diplomas or degrees they were awarded? Can this be verified?
Do they list prior print publications?
Do they list their professional affiliations?
Do they tell you where they are currently employed?
Do they provide a "contact" page, so that you can contact them regarding what they have written (whether you need clarification or to point out a typo)?
Do they tell you why they have created this page? What is their reason for being on the web?
The Content
Third, look at the content.
Is it reasonably well organized, with headings and sub-headings?
Is the spelling correct (within reason)?
Is the grammar correct (within reason)?
Is there an excessive use of exclamation marks, hypothetical questions, or annoying mark ups, such as bold, italic, underlining, colored, or blinking text? (Although most sites run by universities or government agencies make an attempt to be visually pleasing, they have an almost staid appearance, because they are merely providing information, rather than trying to sway your opinion. Websites that take a firm position are okay -- after all, everyone in academia has a firm position. But their efforts to convince you should arise from research rather than opinion, and appeal to logic rather than emotion.
Is there any evidence of bias?
About Wikipedia
I have noticed an interesting dichotomy with regard to Wikipedia. For the most part, high school teachers are opposed to it, whereas most college instructors are not.
Before delving into this controversy, first let's take a look at what Wikipedia actually is, since a lot of the resistance to it seems to be based on a lack of information, or a misunderstanding of what information is available. Wikipedia is a "wiki" -- that is, a site where registered users can create and edit pages. Wikipedia is not the only wiki out there: lots of companies and organizations use wikis as an alternative to mailing lists and discussion forums, especially for maintaining their help pages. Even I have a wii, although it's not being used at the moment.
The idea behind a wiki is that if enough people register and actively create articles and edit each other's articles, the sum of human knowledge that the wiki presents will be exhaustive, current, and largely free of error. In the case of Wikipedia, this is largely true. You can find articles on the most esoteric of topics -- topics i can pretty much guarantee will never show up in the any edition of the
Encyclopedia Britannica. Most of the articles I've viewed are incredibly up to date, sometimes being updated within minutes of the actual event's happening. And many of them are fairly accurate, or at least appear to be fairly accurate.
That's where the problem lies with Wikipedia.
Anyone can create and edit articles on a wiki, without applying or being vetted. So for certain controversial topics, facts will be few and far between, while opinions about. And some people create or edit articles just for a laugh, or even out of spite and malice. In a sense, Wikipedia's biggest strength is also its greatest weakness.
To be fair, Wikipedia does have policies and procedures in place to minimize the effects of those who purposes are anything other than academic. Newly created articles are flagged for review. Articles which lack citations, while common, are also clearly noted, as are articles which are written or structured poorly. By doing so, Wikipedia both warns you, as a user of this information, and invites you, as a potential expert, that the article in question is in need of cleaning up.
Given all that, Wikipedia is still largely taboo in middle schools and high schools. As I've pointed out, college instructors don't seem averse to it, at least as a source of background information. I have yet to meet a college instructor who would accept a Wikipediea article as an entry in the "Works Cited" portion of a paper. And I'm pretty sure that including a Wikipedia reference in the bibliography of a thesis or dissertation would guarantee its failure. (Although as I write this, I seem to remember seeing a reference to a wikipedia article in at least one published article.)
I don't look down my nose too much at Wikipedia articles. I often read them for background infomration and have found many of them to be fairly accurate. (After all, if you're not an expert on the plant species
Hesperis matronalis, why would you bother to create or edit this article?) I do note those which are flagged as being deficient in some way and judge them accordintly. But where I find Wikipedia to be most useful as a research tool is in the "References" and "External Links" sections, which are located at the end of better articles. Good articles are based on wolid research and I have found that many times (although not always, and not nearly often enough), that research is listed at the end. I can then visit my local public or university library to access those articles directly.
Final Words
Most importantly, I use whatever affiliations I can. In other words, because I am a student at Western Michigan University, I can log onto their library website and have access to hundreds of online journals and databases which have been vetted and approved by the library staff. At my local library, I can also log onto to their website and come up with a similar, if smaller, list of acceptable publications and databases. (True, sometimes those journals includes titles such as
People magazine, but I can sort those out on my own.)
As an undergraduate, I could log into my university library account and peruse the professional journals that were available online. If you don't have such acess, you need to ask either your teacher or a librarian.
Other Helps
