| •HOME •Library •Is your information reliable? |
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In
all cases you must use your best judgment. The questions below serve to help
you make decisions but can never fully determine whether information is correct
or not. In the end, you have to ask the questions, seek confirmation, and
judge each site on its own merit. Good Luck! Who posted the site? What type of site is it? Look at the
domain name. Sometimes this will indicate an authority. However, you cannot
assume for example that all .edu sites contain information posted by
educational institutions. In many instances, edu sites have information
posted by students. Here are the
descriptions of some common domains: .edu = educational, .gov = government. ,
.ca = Canada, .uk = United Kingdom, .us = United States. K12 = Kindergarten
to Grade 12, ~adele = personal
website. How timely is the information?
Is there citation information?
Is
there Bias?
Assume there is bias in everything as everyone
has a different perspective. Look for clues like language (positive and
negative); amount of time spent proving one side of an argument; what is presented for proof; as well as what is
omitted. What if I can’t substantiate the information? If no information is available that would
validate the site, don’t use it. Alternatively, find two other sources of
information that substantiate the data. |
Which
Sites Are Reliable? Example Student Exercises
Prime Ministers
2
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