Phil Roché's The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly
More and more information is making its way on to the Web. However, because the Web contains so much data, it has become increasingly difficult to judge whether or not the information you find is useful. Listed below are some tips for evaluating information that you locate on the Web as well as examples of good, bad, and just plain ugly Web sites.
How Do You Know If the Information on a Web Page Is Good or Bad?
This is where your critical thinking skills come in to play. You can't take information or data you find on a Web page at face value! To determine whether or not the information you have located is reliable, you must look closely at your information and ask yourself some essential questions. For example:
| • |
Is there an author(s)? If so, what are her/his qualifications? |
| • |
Is it possible to contact the author(s) to check the validity of the information? |
| • |
Is the information current? |
| • |
Is the information cited? If so, do the citations appear to be legitimate? |
| • |
How in-depth is the information? Is it comprehensive? |
| • |
Does the data appear to be accurate? |
| • |
Does the data show any bias? |
| • |
Is the Web page grammatically correct and free of spelling errors? |
| • |
What is the domain name suffix of the Web page (.com, .edu, .gov)? |
Now take a look at some good, bad, & ugly Web pages/sites and see what you think. Do you agree that they are good, bad, or ugly? Why or why not? Bear in mind that:
| |
• Anyone can create or host a Web page |
| |
• There is no official body, such as the US Government, that
oversees or polices the content on Web pages |
| |
• Search engines are not capable of locating all the
information that is available on the Internet |
| |
• All of the world's information is not available online. The
overwhelming majority of information found in libraries
and archives is not available via the Web |
The Good
The Bad (and/or Silly!)
The Ugly
Here are some sites that contain additional useful tips for evaluating Web pages:
|
