1. Research and the Internet
Rationale: Welcome to “Research and the Internet.” This presentation is designed to introduce your students to methods for effectively searching the World Wide Web and evaluating the content of web pages. The twenty-four slides presented here are designed to aid the facilitator in an interactive presentation of search and evaluation strategies. This presentation is ideal for the beginning of a research unit in a composition course or an Internet research assignment.
This presentation may be supplemented with OWL handouts, including “Searching the World Wide Web” ( “Conducting a Productive Web Search” ( and “Evaluating Sources of Information” (
Directions: Each slide is activated by a single mouse click, unless otherwise noted in bold at the bottom of each notes page.
Writer and Designer: Jennifer Liethen Kunka
Contributors: Muriel Harris, Karen Bishop, Bryan Kopp, Matthew Mooney, David Neyhart, and Andrew Kunka
Developed with resources courtesy of the Purdue University Writing Lab
Grant funding courtesy of the Multimedia Instructional Development Center at Purdue University
© Copyright Purdue University, 2000.

2. Research and the Internet
The Internet can be a great tool for research, but finding quality web materials and using them to your advantage in your writing can be challenging.
OWL web site:
owl.english.
purdue.edu
Rationale: With the development of the Internet, students have found that conducting research is much easier and more convenient than searching through library stacks. While the Internet can be a great tool for research, locating quality materials can at times be a challenge. The following slides will offer tips on how to make the most of your Internet search.
Activity: To generate discussion, the facilitator may ask students about their level of familiarity with the Internet. Also, the facilitator may ask students about the types of web sites they visit, as well as if they have their own personal web pages.

3. Why do we need to evaluate web sources?
Virtually any person can publish almost anything on the Internet.
Unlike most print sources, web sources do not have to be professionally accepted and edited to be published.
Activity: The facilitator might ask students why it is important to evaluate web sources. The answers offered on this slide highlight the importance of web source evaluation. .
Key Concepts: Books and journal articles generally go through a long process of fact-checking, editing, and revising before being published. However, anyone with a computer and Internet access can post a web site. Just because the information is published online, it does not mean it is true or reliable. The facilitator may note that web sites change frequently and sometimes disappear quickly.
Thinking about evaluation within the search process can help to make web browsing efficient and effective.
Click the mouse after the title question.

4. How To evaluate

5. Identify the web site
Assess the authorship, content, and purpose of the web site.
This is important because
many web sources are not checked for accuracy.
some personal sites are used to express individual opinions about issues, but not necessarily the facts.
Key Concepts: After using search engines to locate some potentially helpful web sites, your next step is to identify the site. This involves determining the authorship, content, and purpose of the web site.

6. Identify the web site
Sometimes the actual purpose of the web site may not be clearly articulated.
Can be difficult to separate advertising from accurate information.
Some marketing sites will offer misleading information in attempts to sell their products.
Whenever possible, try to locate the home page.
You can often do this by eliminating some information from the end of the URL.
.org .gov
Rationale: This slide details some of the problems in identifying web sites. In particular, students often have difficulty separating advertising from information.

7. Identify the web site
Is the site affiliated with a business or university?
Does the site offer idiosyncratic information about a particular person or group?
Who is the creator of the site?
What is the purpose of the site?
Who is the audience of this site?
Can you purchase products at this site?
Key Concepts: The best way to evaluate a web site is to ask yourself a list of questions. The questions presented on this slide can help a researcher determine the reliability of the information, as well as the purposes for the web site.
A web site that contains a great deal of idiosyncratic information is probably a personal page devoted to a particular group of people, club, or city.
Activity: The facilitator may ask students about the question in the upper right of the slide: “Is the site affiliated with a business or university?” Ask students if a web site affiliated with a university is more or less reliable than other types of web sites. Often web sites sponsored by a university or a particular department of a university offer some of the most current and well-researched information on the Internet. However, at a school such as Purdue, every student can publish his or her own personal web page. Web surfers need to determine if the information provided is scholarly and well-researched, or if it is published by a student clowning around and posting joke pages on the Internet.

8. Examine for credibility
Credibility may be compromised by purposeful misinformation or by unintentional neglect.
Locating the name of the site’s creator may be challenging.
Credentials may be missing even if the author’s name is provided.
Key Concepts: After you identify the type of web site you are viewing, you must next assess it for credibility. Information in the web site depends in large part upon the author; unfortunately, the author’s name may not be clearly listed on the web site. If the author’s name is listed, credentials may not be provided. Furthermore, because web sites do not need to be fact checked to be published, we cannot necessarily rely upon the publisher to be honest.

9. Examine for credibility
Who is the author of the site?
What is the authority or expertise of the individual or group?
What else comes up when you type the author’s name into a search engine?
Does the source have a political or business agenda?
Is the site sponsored by a political or business group? If so, what can you find out about that group?
Key Concepts: Again, asking yourself a list of questions is the best way to determine the credibility of the web site. Is the author listed? Credentials? If you can find the author’s name, try typing it into a search engine to see what else pops up. Is the author affiliated with a political group or a business? If so, try typing the name of the group into a search engine to see what else pops up.

10. 9/13/2019
Note the author’s name: Dr. What a Lying Fool

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Authority of the organization sponsoring this page (American Medical Association) gives credence to the information contained on it.
Note the Table of Contents in the frame on the left.
Now let’s look at some specific strategies for qualifying the author and the organization for authority and accuracy.

12. Examine for credibility
Does the site provide a list of sources or a Works Cited page?
Can you locate any of the source material? How reliable is this material?
Are there links to other credible sites with additional information?
Does the site provide a link for ing the author or webmaster?
Key Concepts: This slide provides additional questions to test the credibility of a web page. A list of sources indicates the inclusion of source material in the web content, but it is a good idea to check out some of the sources as well. Sources listed on the Works Cited page may also prove useful to the researcher. Does the web site link to other related sites? If the linked sites are not very reliable, you may question the credibility level of the author’s own site--such links show poor judgment. Also, can the author or webmaster be contacted? If so, they may be willing to answer questions about their web site or even consent to an interview!
Purdue University Writing Lab

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The “look” of this site is very dignified, and the title sounds as if it would present several viewpoints on a subject. However, even in the early sentences it is clear that the author has an axe to grind.
Use of emotionally charged words

14. 9/13/2019 Note: read the first paragraph aloud.
As the article progresses it becomes clear that this page espouses the white supremacy point of view. The author is promoting his ideas, with no thought of providing balanced coverage of the subject.
At the end of the document the author does give an address and a fax number, but there is no other way of determining his credentials for writing this document.

15. Determine depth and scope of information
Does the material show signs of research, such as references to other sources, hyperlinks, footnotes, or a reference page?
Does the author consider opposing points of view?
How closely does the site really match the information for which you are searching?
Corroborate information whenever possible!
Key Concepts: This slide again offers a list of questions that students should ask when they review web sites for their depth and scope of information. Also, students need to allow themselves enough time to research their work. Encourage them not to just use information from the first five web sites they locate--they should find the five best web sites on their topics.
Activity: The facilitator may ask students why the consideration of opposing points of view is important in a well-researched web site. The presence of opposing viewpoints suggest that the author has carefully considered multiple viewpoints about an issue and has come to an educated conclusion about the issue.

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By contrast, at the beginning of this web page the author provides his affiliation with UVA.

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His statements are documented throughout with no less than 20 endnotes!
The documentation provides a clue to the validity of the information

18. Determine depth and scope of information
Different from print sources:
Information covered on web pages is often presented for easy digestion and visual appeal.
Information may not provide sufficient depth or scope.
Material may be affected by marketing or political bias.
Sometimes web sources may not be the right sources for the information you need.
Key Concepts: Web researchers need to determine the depth and scope of information provided on web pages. Remember, looking at the Internet on a computer monitor is very similar in some ways to watching a giant television: web pages are generally designed to be visual appealing for quick and easy digestion by the viewer. Consequently, information may not be presented as thoroughly as it might be in a book or journal article. Also, the material included on web pages may be dramatically altered to fit the marketing or political agendas of the publishers.
Finally, the facilitator may want to stress that web sources are not always the best sources of information. Students sometimes tend to have an overreliance on the Internet, thinking that all information is out there somewhere in cyberspace. The best research students can do is to combine web sources with other print sources, including books, magazines, and academic journals, as well as interviews and questionnaires.

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Here are two pages related to smoking. This one focuses on smokers’ rights, and has a clear point of view. In fact, this page happens to be hosted by the R. J. Reynolds Company.

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By contrast, this page claims to link to sites with diverse views about smoking.
The Table of Contents bears this out: Anti-Smoking Groups and ProSmoking Documents are both represented.
Health Aspects are balanced with Smoking Glamour.

21. Assess date of information
Can you locate a date on the web page?
Dates on web pages can mean:
Date the author first wrote or developed the material
Date site was first available on the Internet for public access
Date site was most recently updated, including revisions, additions, or subtractions to the material
Does the site clearly state a date of creation or a date for the most recent update?
More importantly, does the information cover recent changes or advances in the field or topic you are researching?
Key Concepts: Though information on web sites may be credible, it may not be current. The date of the material may be completely omitted from the web site. To be sure you are covering all of the recent changes in the field or topic you are studying, be sure to assess the currency of your information. This is not always an easy task.

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This page was last updated on December 23, 1998 and was captured on August 17, 1999.

23. Evaluating web sources
Use search engines to your advantage
Identify the web site
Examine for credibility
Determine depth and scope of information
Assess date of information
Rationale: This slide reemphasizes the main points of the presentation. This is a good time for the facilitator to field any questions about the presentation content.
Activity: Click on the OWL hyperlink and visit the collection of search engines on the lower left section of the page.
Ask students to imagine that they will write a paper about US tobacco lawsuits. Have them go to Hotbot and type in the keyword “tobacco.” Hotbot will provide the ten “hottest” sites with that keyword; the majority of them will be tobacco shops, companies selling methods to stop smoking, and smoking afficianado pages. You may find one or two sites related to the lawsuits. Then have your students try the same search in Yahoo. They will find information categorized into sections relating to business, hobbies, health, and news. Note that Yahoo can help to identify the types of web sites you visit, saving time and energy in the search process. You might then choose to have students come up with pairs of keywords to enter into the site, such as “tobacco and legislation” or “smoking and lawsuits.” This will refine the search even further.
Visit the Mankato (Minnesota) web pages and ask your students to assess their reliability. The official web page is located at < Another page is located at < This page is posted by Mankato State University, and it is designed as both a joke and an exercise in assessing the reliability of web pages. Have students follow the links on the site, notice the pictures, and the many awards and press listings noted at the bottom of the home page. Then have students read the “Disclaimer” flashing at the top of the screen (be sure to jump to Part Four). The letter from Maureen Gustafson is also a treat. Just because a page LOOKS like it might be reliable doesn’t mean it is.
Visit a search engine of your choice and ask your students to provide some search terms for some sample class searches and web page evaluations.
Purdue University Writing Lab

24. List of Sources that are NOT considered reliable
E-how/How-it-Works
Blogs and discussion forums
Hubpages
Helium
Ask.com
Wiki – anything
About.com
Online encyclopedia
Personal websites
Google is NOT a source

25. Works Consulted
Kunka, Jennifer . “Research and the Internet.” Purdue University Writing Lab. Web January 2010.
Gretchen Greiner. “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Evaluating Internet Resources.” Frederick County Public Schools. Web. 29 January