Today’s Objective:

We will evaluate the relevance

and reliability of online sources
for research.
Two Types of Sources:
Resources from the CMS Library
• Instead of Wikipedia try these:
• Encyclopedia Britannica or Gale Database.
• Gale Database password:
• Open Google Classroom
• Click on Reliable Sources Document
• Make a copy and save to your drive
• Link to Reliable Sources document
• Sweet Search
• https://www.sweetsearch.com/
A,B,C,D of Evaluating Sources
Evaluating a website means to check and make sure
the information on the website is correct and from a
reliable source. So, once you have found a website
that you would like to use for your research, follow
these easy steps to evaluate it.
A-Author
Look for the author, who wrote the content on the website? You can
look at the top or bottom of a page for clues. Anyone can have a .com
website. Look to see if the author is an expert in their field.

Some questions to ask are:

What are the author's credentials?

Is the author an expert in that subject or topic?
Is there contact information?
Who is the publisher or organization responsible for the content?
B-Bias
Bias means to favor one thing over another based on your personal
way of thinking. On websites, think about the author's purpose.
Was this information written to inform, entertain or persuade you?
Some questions to ask are:
● Does the information state both sides of an issue or is it biased
towards one side?
● Is it more opinion than fact?
● Does it have evidence to support the facts or claims?
C-Content
This is where you check for the type of information and the
overall organization of a website.

A good place to start is by looking at what type of website it is

(domain).
Is it a commercial (.com)
government (.gov)
organization (.org)
education (.edu) website?
C-Content Continued...

How detailed and accurate is the information?

Does the text contain correct spelling, punctuation, and
grammar?
Are references or a bibliography included?
Are the graphics appropriate and helpful?
 How to Decode Websites Quickly
Some Common Domain Names For example:
http://www.utexas.edu/
.edu - education sites
.gov - government sites https://www.cia.gov/
.org - organization sites
http://www.pbs.org/
.com - commercial sites
http://www.hayscisd.net/
.net - network infrastructures
D-Date
Finally, you need to check when the website was published or last
updated. Depending on your topic, you may want the most
up-to-date information.

Some questions to ask are:

When was the website created?
When was the website last updated?
If the site has links, are they still current? Do they still work?
Finally-Cite Your Sources!
• To avoid plagiarism, you need to paraphrase and cite your sources.
• For Language Arts put in MLA format
• Use Easy Bib or Citation Machine to make it easy.
• Keep track of:
• Web address
• Title of Site or Book
• Title of Article
• Date
• Author
• Publisher
.COMS
• .COM means a site is commercial or for a business. Anyone can
create one. You don’t have to be an expert. There is FAKE NEWS
websites…
• A fake news website, NationalReport.net made up a story about how
customers in Colorado marijuana shops were using food stamps to
buy pot.
• "What that turned into was a state representative in the House in
Colorado proposing actual legislation to prevent people from using
their food stamps to buy marijuana based on something that was
fake news," Coler says.
.edu, .gov, .org
• Many of the best scientist, mathematicians, and
experts write for universities, government agencies or
non-profit organizations.
• These websites end in .edu, .gov, .org
• When searching for information checkout the ending
letters to see who is sponsoring the website.
Citation Page
https://www.smore.com/kn2uf-evaluating-a-website

https://libguides.occc.edu/c.php?g=297238&p=1982748

http://homework.sdmesa.edu/libinstr/docs/EvalWeb.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBNrVPt6eVg