Analyzing Internet Sources

Analyzing Internet Sources

The main three best practices that I learned about using the internet for academic purposes were, always keep in mind what I need to locate. This will help me by having an outline of the topic that I need to research and will help me stay on track. With the internet it is very easy to become sidetracked and lose my focus. There are so many different links that can easily take me away from what I really was here to research. To bookmark sites that look useful is a great help, this means I can always come back to this site for future references if needed. I think a great practice for me is to determine the site’s purpose. To know if the site is personal, political or research-oriented, if it is personal or political it would not help me much unless I am doing a paper on political thoughts and opinions. Keeping my focus on the research sites will help me the most. Also staying away for signs of bias sites, other people opinion does not need to be in my paper unless using them as an example.

The way that I will determine if the information on a website is reputable and worthwhile for research first, I will determine if author or publisher is. If the author is a respected expert in the field I am researching the site is most likely to be reliable. I will check to see if they are government agencies for academic institutions or military sites. Finding out the purpose of the site for my research, is the site trying to sell me something? Those kinds of sites I will refrain from using. I will look for sites that provide information for educational purposes this will also help me stay away from bias information.