The Internet How to decide which website will be useful for your project

The Internet is a good place to find out information But, sometimes it can provide too much information. This can make it difficult to decide which websites will give you the information that you need

Who checks that the information on the Internet is factual? No-one! – there are no editors Anyone can make up a website and put information of the Internet You –the reader – have to decide for yourself which articles are factual and useful for your research.

Wikipedia is an example of an Internet site where information can be changed and added to by anyone who visits the website. It is one of the most popular encyclopaedias on the Internet, and although it contains lots of reliable information, it can contain some wrong information You NEED TO BE AWARE that some of the information has to be double checked with other sources, as wrong or misleading information can easily be added to an article.

Start your research by typing your subject topic into Google (search engine) Google will usually provide a long list of websites

Before choosing a website, look at the web address (URL) and try and decide which ones will have reliable information Look for: –gov – for government sites –edu – for education sites –org – for non profit organizations

Examples of website address (URL) Topic - ‘Healthy Eating’ - Google lists 7,880,000 results! Look carefully at the website address (URL) ‘gov’ means it’s a government site and will therefore be more likely to give unbiased information. ‘com’ means company and this site will therefore give useful information, but will also have a bias towards encouraging people to eat Tesco products.

Once you have chosen a site, try to identify its source Who has written the information? –Look for the name of the author or organization who is responsible for the site. When was it written? –Is the information up-to-date?

Why was the page put on the Internet? What are the intentions of the author? - Inform – give facts –Sell something – persuade –Share views – discussion & debate

Is it a useful website? Is the information relevant to the topic? Are there links to other sources on the topic? Is the information biased in any way?

Once you’ve found a reliable & useful site, remember and take a note of the web address, or save it in your ‘Favourites’, so that you can easily access it again. Good luck with your research! Waid Academy Library