ENGL 112: English Composition - Davis

PURPOSE: The reason the information exists

• What is the purpose of the information? Is it to inform, teach, sell, entertain or persuade? -- Check the URL of the site to help determine any bias: .com (commercial, trying to sell something--beware of the pharmaceuticals reporting "scientific" findings); .edu (educational, but may be elementary/secondary level); .gov (governmental agency); .org (non-profit organization; may be something trustworthy like the United Nations; may be something like poitico.org, a political organization or a religious .org site promoting an ideology.
• Do the authors/sponsors make their intentions or purpose clear? --Check the "About Us" section of the website to see if they are clear about their intentions.
• Is the information fact, opinion or propaganda?-- Does what is said contradict what other authors or sites are saying or agree with them?
• Does the point of view appear objective and impartial? --Do they use inflammatory or objective language?
• Are there political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional or personal biases? --Are they promoting an ideology, trashing another, promoting a product over another?

ACCURACY: The reliability, truthfulness and correctness of the content

• Where does the information come from? --Are there references, links to other sources?
• Is the information supported by evidence? --Do they provide a trail of evidence or do they only  make claims and assumptions.
• Has the information been reviewed or refereed? --Does it say it has been reviewed or referreed? Have other experts looked at it?
• Can you verify any of the information in another source or from personal knowledge? Compare the information with 2-3 other sources.
• Does the language or tone seem unbiased and free of emotion?
• Are there spelling, grammar or typographical errors? --If so, it is not a scholarly work.

Tips for checking Accuracy

Can you Verify the Information?

Is there a bibliography or a list of related links?  Are there in-text references?  All of these, or lack thereof, are signs of credibility.  You should only trust sites that provide enough information for you to be able to trace it back to the original source.

AUTHORITY: The source of the information

• Who is the author/publisher/source/sponsor? --Look under About Us on the website.  Look for an author's name. "Google" the author to find out more about him or her. Check the web URL (Domain name) at Internic's Who Is site.
• What are the author's credentials or organizational affiliations?
• Is the author qualified to write on the topic? --If the author is a doctor writing about medical things, well enough.  If the author is a doctor writing about a theological perspective, maybe not. If a journalist writes about something, use that article to find the scholarly article upon which the news article is based.
• Is there contact information, such as a publisher or email address? Check About Us, Contact Us (at bottom of website)
• Does the URL reveal anything about the author or source? e.g. .com .edu .gov .org .net

Tips for Checking Authority

Who Links to the Site?

One way to judge whether the information on a site is reasonably trustworthy is to see who else believes in the site enough to place a link back to it on their own web site or to refer their viewers to the site.  To check who is referring others to this site by linking to it, go into Google and type in "link:thesiteurl".  The results list that comes up will show you who has linked to this site from their own site.  By looking down the result list, you can quickly see if education, library, or government sites are linking to the site in question.  Or perhaps you see only bloggers, activist groups and such linking to it.  That should tell you if other authorities trust the site.

Look for Information on the Site Itself

Check the web site itself (About Us or at the bottom of the home page) for the name of the publisher or author.  If it is an article within a web site, look for an author's name at the top or bottom of the article.  If there is an author's name, "google" the name to see if you can find out more about the person and who they are, what their credentials are, and who they may work for or be connected with.

Check the URL

A URL ending means different things:

.edu = educational site (may be an elementary school or a university)

.gov = US government site

.org = non-profit organization (may be trustworthy such as the United Nations or biased such as a political advocacy group)

.com = commercial site -- even if the site looks reputable it is there to sell something (especially beware of pharmaceutical or medical sites with lofty sounding research but that have a .com site)

RELEVANCE: The importance of the information for your needs

• Does the information relate to your topic or answer your question? 
• Who is the intended audience? -- Is the audience grade school? general public? scholarly?
• Is the information at an appropriate level (i.e. not too elementary or advanced for your needs)?
• Have you looked at a variety of sources before determining this is one you will use?
• Would you be comfortable citing this source in your research paper? --Why or why not?

Tips for checking Relevance

Using the 'who links to the site' tip as found on the authority tab may help you identify the intended audience of this information.