Evaluating Websites
Directions: Today we will evaluate some web pages to determine the quality of the web page for use in research projects. View the web pages and respond to each question below in the provided chart. When you are finished email the completed chart to empresearch.2010@gmail.com with the subject line and document titled eval.your intitials.period, ie. mine would be eval.rr.7
I. Content:
- Does the site cover the topic comprehensively & accurately?
- Can you understand what is being said or is it written above or below your level of understanding?
- Is this site unique and does it offer something others do not?
- Are the chosen links helpful and related to the content?
- Currency: Can you tell: the date the information was created? the publication date? the date the material was last revised? Are these dates meaningful in terms of the subject matter?
II. Bias/purpose:
- Why was this site created? (to persuade, inform, explain, sell, promote, parody, other?)
- Is it a personal, commercial, government or organization site? What is the domain name? Does it end in .com, .gov, .edu, .org, .net? Is it a personal page?
- Is there any bias? Is only one side of the argument presented? Does it appear that any information is purposely omitted? Is there a hidden message? Is it trying to persuade you or change your opinion? Is the bias useful to you in some way?
- Who is responsible for this site? Who sponsors it? Hint: shorten each section of the URL back until you are able to find the sponsor.
- What are the author’s credentials?
- Have the authors of the site cited their own sources? Are the sources documented appropriately?
Abbr. bullets | tornado 1938 | |||
I. Content | Comp & accurate | |||
Understandable | ||||
Unique offerings | ||||
Links | ||||
Currency | ||||
II. Bias | Purpose | |||
Domain | ||||
Bias | ||||
Sponsors | ||||
Authors | ||||
Citations |
