HW12

PART 1

Step 1: Choose ONE website from this list to evaluate.

Usability.gov (http://www.usability.gov)

Romantic Circles (http://www.rc.umd.edu)

Quackwatch (http://www.quackwatch.com/)

NewsBusters (http://www.newsbusters.org/)

Daily Kos (http://dailykos.com/)

Bits (http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/)

Everything2 (http://everything2.com/)

H2G2 (http://www.h2g2.com/)

Encyclopedia Mythica (http://www.pantheon.org/)

Step 2: Find out who authored the information on your chosen web site. Answer the following

questions.

1. Is there one single author? Or a group of authors? 2. Is authorship restricted or unrestricted? (Unrestricted websites allow anyone to contribute.

Restricted websites are limited).

3. If you cannot find a named author, can you get other clues about where the content came from?

Step 3: Not all authors are equal in credibility. Once you’ve found out who’s responsible for the

site’s content, you need to find out whether they have any expertise.

A book’s author will often put relevant information in an “about the author” section on the book

flap. Some Web sites also have “about the author” sections. For others, you will have to do more

digging – you may want to Google the name of the author or authors. You may also have to

make some educated guesses.

Answer the following questions. If there is more than one author, answer the questions for just

one author.

4. What is the author’s education level? 5. Does he or she have a degree? From what school? In what subject? 6. What is the author’s previous writing experience? 7. How much does the author probably know about the topic or topics on which he or she is

writing?

8. Does he or she deal intimately with this subject in daily life, or only research it for the purpose of writing about it?

9. If relevant, has he or she performed experiments and independent research projects on this topic?

10. Does the author have a neutral perspective on the site’s subject matter, or is he or she trying to promote a particular viewpoint?