Evaluating Websites

More and more people are using the internet every day. It is important to know whether a website is credible or not. There are many websites out there that give false information or they give information trying to sell a product or they want you to believe a certain way, so the information is one-sided. Anyone can set up a web page, so how do you know if what you are reading is credible or not? You ask yourself some questions about the webpage. You want to ask questions about five different things; accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency, and coverage. I decided to research the United States Health and Human Services website. This website is informational website designed to present facts, letting the public know about what services are offered and how to take advantage of them. With an informational website, the URL Address frequently ends in .edu or .gov, as many of these pages are sponsored by educational institutions or government agencies. Examples of these are: dictionaries, thesauri, directories, transportation schedules, calendars of events, statistical data, and other factual information such as reports, presentations of research, or information about a topic (Alexander, Tate, 1999). I asked myself the following questions about accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency, and coverage.. . Accuracy – how accurate is the information on the page? Ask yourself the following questions: Can you verity the information (sources), is the information free of typo’s, spelling, and grammatical errors, can you clearly tell who is responsible for the

accuracy of the content, and are any charts or graphs easy to read (Alexander, Tate 1999)? `Authority – who authorized this webpage? Look at the webpage and ask yourself; who put this page together. Is it clear who is responsible for putting the page together? Is there a