Website Reliability

 
Context:  This lesson is effective when students are being introduced to the use of research in their writing.  It can be adapted for many levels.
 
Activity:
1.  Contextualize the lesson by discussing the importance of research and the possible sources one might look for when gathering information for writing.  Discuss sources that seem reliable and ones that don't.
2.  Make the handout below available to the students, let them choose groups, and begin to work.
 
Handout for Activity:

Below is a series of questions to help you determine what kind of a website you are actually looking at and whether or not it is reliable. Start with one person in the group and answer the following questions for one of her or his websites.  When you are done answering the questions, then rank the websites in terms of reliability (#1 is most reliable).  When you are done with the first person’s website, then repeat the process for one of the second person's websites, and then the third.  After you've looked at one website for each person, then you may split up and examine your other websites individually.
 
Be sure to cut and paste the info below into a new document each time, so that you can have answers to the questions for each website you examine. 
   
Names of people in your group:
   
 
1.  Before you even start looking for sources on your topic, think about who would be the most likely people to give reliable information on it (for example, if you paper is about something to do with biology, biologists and possibly veterinarians would be the most reliable).
 
Topic:
 
Intended audience:
 
People who would be most reliable in this field: 
 
 
Address of website: 
 
 
Now, we are ready to begin:
 
Does this website have an author?  If yes, what can you tell from the info given here about him or her?
 
 
Does this website have a sponsoring organization?  If yes, who are they?  Are they reliable?  If no, do they seem to have any kind of connections with any organization?  If yes, what kind of an organization are they connected with?
 
 
Does this section that you are getting information from cite its sources – does it tell you where the information came from?  Do those sources look reliable?
 
What is the last part of the address?  Different endings mean different things:
 
 .org = is a not for profit organization
 .com =  commercial use, in other words, they are trying to sell something
.edu = educational; this could be anything from a fifth grade project to a university professor’s latest research
.gov = official US government documents, etc.
.html = this is the computer language the website was written in
 
What does the address tell you about the people who put it on the web?
 
 
What kind of vocabulary does this text employ?  In other words, if it sounds professional and academic, it is more likely (but not necessarily) going to be accurate, than if it sounds like a teenager’s fan site (“dude, you know, like, there are all sorts of cures for cancer…”) 
 
 
 
Who appears to be the intended audience for this website?  How can you tell?
 
 
Where do the links on this website take you?  Do those look reliable?
 
 
When was the date last updated, or the copyright date?  How important is that to your topic?
 
 
 
When you have all of this information, you now have enough to make a pretty good guess about its reliability, So, in a few sentences, explain what you think about whether or not this would be a good source for what YOU are doing with this paper: