Why is it important for students to evaluate their Internet sources when doing online research?

Why Is It Important To Evaluate Sources?

When you do research, you want to find the best information to support your ideas. This requires careful evaluation of the information you find.

Evaluate information...

  • To find the most relevant information for your topic and assignment
  • To ensure the quality and reliability of your research
  • To find expert views, opinions, and research on your topic
  • To weed out unreliable, biased, outdated, and/or incorrect information
  • To make sure you get the information your professor is seeking

Why is it important to evaluate the Internet sources that we use?

It is important to evaluate Internet resources critically, as not everything you read online is reliable and true. Anyone can create a website, which means many websites lack the quality controls (e.g. editing and fact checking) that are used in publishing other types of resources (e.g. scholarly journals).

Why do we need to evaluate a website when doing a research?

Most information that is published on the Web is not filtered and evaluated like books, journals, magazines, or newspapers. Since there are no guidelines for publishing on the Web, it is important to evaluate Web sites before including them in a research paper or using them for other purposes.

Why is it important to evaluate credibility sources?

Finding sources for research is important, but using unreliable sources will hurt your credibility and make your arguments seem less powerful. It is important to be able to identify which sources are credible. This ability requires an understanding of depth, objectivity, currency, authority, and purpose.