The World Wide Web provides an amazing amount of information and resources for research; however, you need to be able to think critically about each site’s value, usefulness and reliability.  Please apply the following criteria to any source you find.  Don’t forget to cite each source correctly.

1. Authorship:  Who is the author?  What are his or her credentials or institutional affiliation?  Is this a primary source?  Secondary source?  Combination of primary and secondary source?

2. Site Credibility: What is the name of the organization responsible for this site. Can you contact the Webmaster for this site. What category does the site fit into? .edu(educational); .org.(non-profit organization); .com(for commercial or for-profit group)? Is the site linked to others?  Do the links work?

3. Site Objectivity. How objective is the site and the information presented? What is the purpose of the site?  What kind of evidence is given? Is there hard data?  What is the tone? (matter-of-fact, serious, humorous, sarcastic) How much analysis is apparent? How much is based on opinion or generalizations?  How much bias is shown?

4. Extent of Information and Knowledge Demonstrated:  What level of scholarship is demonstrated?  Is there a bibliography?  Is the information accurate?

5. Timeliness:   How timely is the site?  What is the date of publication?  Are other dates given? Is the site up-dated?  How current is the information?

6.  Graphics: How big a role does graphics play?  What is the ratio of text to graphics? What images are shown?  How effective are the images in conveying meaning and tone?

7.  Summary: Always check the site for the following: author, title, date, source of information, intention.

6. Rule of thumb for citing sources-- Include the following information and check your up-dated MLA or APA manuals(they may be on-line):
author’s name, title of work, date of publication or creation of information, on-line address, (date the source was accessed)
e.g.: Grassian, Esther. “Thinking Critically about World Wide Web Resources.”December 3,1996.
 http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/college/instruct/critical.htm (29 Oct 1997) google.stanford.edu

7. Citing online source with print equivalent:
 Give basic information as in regular citation.  Then list the name of the database, and, if possible, date accessed.
 eg. Jones, Sarah. “Insanity as a defense” New Republic. 15 Oct. 1997.
     Extended Academic ASAP.  1 Nov. 1997