Evaluating Information 

For ENG233 – Interview and Feature Writing class

With Joyce Miller, ACC Instruction Librarian
March 2006

How can you research and confirm information for your articles?

- Books and newspaper and magazine articles tend to be well-researched, written by experts and more likely to be fact checked than many Web sites.

Consult material written by known experts: use books and articles in either print or electronic form, such as the databases found on the library's Web page, to verify information.

- It’s wisest to check multiple sources to confirm information. Make sure your first source didn’t use your second source as a source!

- The Poynter Institute's Web site offers excellent articles on reporting: http://www.poynter.org. The Writing/Editing link has great advice. Chip Scanlan’s article, Getting It Right: A Passion for Accuracy, is excellent.

Evaluating Web pages:

How can you tell if a Web page is true, real, and completely accurate? See this ACC LIbrary link for useful criteria: Evaluating Information on the Web.

These Web sites offer links to generally credible sites:

Librarian’s Internet Index: http://lii.org

A publicly-funded subject directory from the Library of California. It lists only about 17,000 “cream of the crop” Web sites, chosen by librarians and organized by subject. Click Media > News for sites on journalism.

Fedstats.gov: http://www.fedstats.gov

National, state and county statistics from the federal government.

Purportal.com: The Bunk Stops Here: http://purportal.com/
Links to seven well-known "de-bunking" Web sites for hoaxes, urban legends, viruses, Trojan horses, spyware, malware, scams, fraud, and phishing. You must to enter your search terms into each search box. Search results often display ads at the top of the page. Excellent Links page.

ACC Library's Research Guides: ACC Library > Research Guides
Librarians at ACC also like to point you towards the best quality Web sites on subjects. See our research guides on 40+ topics for more excellent sites!

What about.... Wikipedia ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
“The free encyclopedia that anyone can edit”: caveat emptor! About one million entries. Unless you know the topic well enough to know if the information is true, don't trust it!

For other fact-checking options, see this research guide: How to Search the Web (ACC Library > Research Guides > How to Search the Web).

Now...try it out!:

Go to this page: http://www.thecitizen.com/node/14860



Your group's task:

Evaluate this page using ONLY the criteria assigned to your group. Use the tools you've learned!

- Take notes on the Evaluating Web Sites worksheet for your one section.

- In each group, have one person be the recorder (writing what you're observing) , one the reporter (reporting back to the class) . All others are the brilliant observers. Talk quietly amongst yourselves as you discuss your findings.

- After 5 minutes, each group will report their findings. Good luck! And be careful out there on the Web...