Letter to Friend

Dear Friend,

You’ve asked me many important questions I am going to try my best to answer them all. How do I assess the value of the all the information I find on the internet and how can I be sure that it is reliable and credible? I believe the internet epitomizes the concept of caveat lector: let the reader beware (1). There are several things to look for when assessing the value as well as figuring out if the site is reliable and creditable. They are as follows: Authorship, Publishing body, Point of view or bias, Referral to other sources, Verifiability, Currency, and How to distinguish propaganda, misinformation and disinformation. Authorship means knowing who wrote the piece of information you are reading, are they well known in your area of study? Is the author well regarded name you recognize? Are they mentioned by the author that you know and is well recognized in your field of study? The publishing body refers to helping to evaluate any document you may be reading. In a print, it means the manuscript has undergone screening to ensure it meets the standards or aims of the group that seeks to publish it. You can do this by checking if the name of the organization is given on the document you are reading. Is there a watermark belonging to the official academic or scholarly web site? Point of view and bias. This is a tricky one because everyone has their own point of view. The trick is how to figure out what that point of view or bias is of what you are reading. Some helpful hints for this are: Note the URL, does it have a URL that resides on a web server of the group that has a clear stand at the issue at hand? Research and inquiry are always found around very controversial questions it is important to remember that everyone has an opinion. Referral to and /or knowledge of the literature just refers to how much the author knows about the subject they are writing about. Check to ensure the document includes a bibliography, that they convey and display the...