Ms. Gokturk
Internet Research Assignment
PART I
Class Discussion Questions
What to look for when
searching a website:
ð
Who is the
author?
ð
Who sponsors the
site?
ð
Is there a
political motive to the site?
ð
Has the website
been edited (are there many errors)?
ð
Has the site been
updated?
ð
Is it a .edu, .com, .org?
ð
Is the source
reliable?
1. Imagine this: You are researching a controversial
issue like gun control, and you find a crumpled up piece of paper in a street
gutter. The paper is handwritten, and it begins, "Ten Facts about Gun
Control." You don't know who wrote it, and there is no mention of where
the facts come from. Would you use this as part of your research? Why or why
not?
2. Sometimes there is no official author on a website,
but the page is connected to an institution or organization that has a good
reputation. Here's
an example.
[http://www.drugabuse.gov/researchreports/nicotine/nicotine2.html#what] Who is
the sponsoring organization?
3. If you don't know who wrote the page or if you can't
verify the author's credentials or the author isn't connected to a reputable
institution or organization, what should you do?
4. Check out the web page about a famous rapper [http://www.snoop-dogg.com/].
What kind of information about him would you NOT find on this page? Why not?
5. What are domain names? What are the most common? What
do they tell you about a page? (.com, .edu, .org,
etc.)
6. Look at this page about smoking.
[http://unr.edu/homepage/shubinsk/whosmok1.html] What is missing?
PART
II
Before
you begin your feature, you should familiarize yourself with the topic.
Please go to (http://home.sprintmail.com/~debflanagan/main.html)
and review how to surf strategically. Your mission is to find THREE good
websites for your topic. www.google.com is
a great place to start. Put your search in quotes for better results.
For
each site, please
1. cite it appropriately*
2. write a one paragraph (minimum) summary about the site's
content. You will return to this site to write your mini-research paper, so
your summary should be detailed enough to serve as a guideline
Please
hand in your findings by the end of class. If you do not finish, you may
complete this for homework.
*Humanities Style Citing
To cite files available on the WWW, give the author's name, last name first (if
known); the full title of the work, in quotation marks; the title of the
complete work (if applicable) or website name, in italics; any version or file
numbers; and the date of the document or last revision (if available). Next,
list the protocol (e.g., "http") and the full URL, followed by the
date of access in parentheses.
Burka, Lauren P. "A Hypertext History of
Multi-User Dimensions." MUD History.
1993.
http://www.utopia.com/talent/lpb/muddex/essay (