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Using the Internet.
The internet is the easiest resource you can use, but in most cases it is not the best. When using internet cites it is critical to recognize the source that the information is coming from. For the purposes of this class, you can divide all internet resources into five groups:
1. Government Website – Despite what you see in the movies, you really can trust the government. Any information you pull from an official government agency will almost always be reliable and sufficiently researched. Some examples of government websites that you will use throughout the year are:
2. Published Scientific Paper/Journal – Scientists regularly publish their findings in scientific journals. From time to time these journals make it to the internet. These are usually “peer reviewed”, which means that other scientists have objectively evaluated the findings of the paper/report, and found it to be worth publishing. This means that you can usually trust this type of site. It should be noted that most journals are highly specialized, and that it can be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Finally, these journals tend to charge for access to their articles, but allow access to an abstract from
the general website. You can ask our awesome librarian, Mrs. Dunphy in the library for a listing of journals that you can access from the library or the Old Colony Library Network (OCLN).
4. Organization with an Agenda – Take any information from one of these organizations with a grain of salt. Organizations like The Audubon Society, Greenpeace, and The World Wildlife Fund, are environmental activist organizations and will present information that makes their argument. Some of the better websites to use are listed below:
5. Amateur Website –
· Who published this website?
· What kind of background does the person have?
· Where did the person get their information?
If you can’t answer any one of these three questions, then don’t use the website as a resource! Amateur websites are almost always well meaning, but its possible that the valuable information that you just gathered on the draining of the Everglades just came from a sixth grader in Taiwan, who hasn’t ever seen the everglades, and can’t find Florida on a map, but she just got an A on her science fair project because she did a great job designing her own website.
When citing resources, please use the APA style, as opposed to the MLA style used in your English classes. If you need a resource for properly citing sources in the text and in your sources cited page, use the citation machine website: http://www.citationmachine.net/
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