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Internet Research for Reports
Internet Research for Reports
Before you use information from the Internet in your school reports, it
is important that you know a little bit about where that information comes
from....
Some information on the Internet is very useful and may help you find
just what you need. Other information might be false or give you the wrong idea
about something. Use the tips listed here to help you figure out whether you
should use the information that you find to do your school report.
1. Who put this information on the Internet?
2. When was it put there? Is there a date on the page?
3.Is the information meant to be serious, or is it a joke? How can you tell?
4.How do you know where this information comes from?
5. Is the information biased? Does it only give one opinion?
6. Who is the information meant for?
7. What type of information is it? Is it a home page or an e-mail message?
8. How should you list information from the Internet on your bibliography?
If you are still not sure whether you should use Internet information for your school report, ask your teacher or
librarian for advice. It is always a good idea to check many different sources
for your school report, including books, encyclopedias, magazines, and
newspapers.
1. Who put this information on the Internet?
When you are looking for information on the Internet, it is very important to find out who is providing the information
you see. If you look at the bottom of the page, you will usually see an e-mail
address and this usually indicates who put the information on the page.
At the top of the page, you can also look at the Web address, (ie: http://www.stansteadcollege.com). Addresses
that use the letters ".org" (such as www.bpl.org) belong to
organizations like libraries, museums, and non-profit groups. Some addresses
use ".com" (such as www.disney.com) and those are
businesses. You might see a page that says, "Buy the exciting new Space
Adventure Action Figures! The best action figures you can buy!" If the
address on the page is www.toy-store.com, you might want to find out more about
these action figures before you buy them. The "toy-store" company
probably put that information on the Internet to help them sell their toys.
Other addresses you see might use ".edu" (for schools and colleges),
".gov" (for the U.S. government), and ".mil" (for the U.S.
military).
Questions you should ask about who provided the information are: Is this person (or group or company) an expert in
the subject they are talking about? Are they trying to sell something? Are they
trying to make you believe something? Would you find information like this in a
book or a magazine? Does this person give information about themselves, such as
an e-mail address, so that you could ask them questions? Is the information the
opinion of only one person (or group)? Do you think the information provider is
serious or are they playing a prank?
2. When was it put there? Is there a date on the page?
If you see a page that says "Today's News," you expect it to be about things that happened today.
On the Internet, information you find will sometimes be old, though it says
"news" or "today" or even "February." Try to find
a date on the page. Sometimes at the bottom of the page, there will be a line
that says, "This page updated on:" and give you a date. Get the month
and year the information was put there if you can, and for real news stories,
get the exact date.
3. Is the information meant to
be serious, or is it a joke? How can you tell?
It can be hard to tell a real page from a fake (or prank) page. Look for
clues: If the page is about a person, is his or her name spelled in a funny
way? Is there a photo or other picture that the person might not have wanted
people to look at (because it's silly or makes them look dumb)? Are there
invented names or links, or words that sound like they aren't real? Are they
saying or offering things that might be impossible, like "win a free trip
to the moon"? Read a page carefully to look for clues to whether it might
be fake.
If you have e-mail, you might have seen e-mail pranks, or "hoaxes." A hoax happens when someone sends a
false e-mail message. They think it is funny because people might believe it is
true. For example, in early 1996 there was a hoax saying that the Internet
would have to be shut down for cleaning! This is impossible, but many people
didn't understand that it was false. If you are not sure about something you
read on the Internet, ask someone else for advice.
4. How do you know where this information comes from? Does the page list any sources for the information?
In books about true subjects, there is usually a page at the end saying where the writer got his or her
information. Sometimes you will see this on the Internet, too. If you find a
page with lots of charts and information about Montreal, it might say
"City of Montreal Census Figures." Or maybe you find a famous poem,
which says "by Robert Frost, 1962." You should include these sources
in your school report. If there are lots of quotes or charts on a page and
there is no information about where these came from, be careful in using them.
Try to find out more about this information, or ask a librarian for advice.
5. Is the information biased? Does it only give one opinion?
Many people can put information on the Internet. It can be done for free and it isn't very hard to have your own
home page that says anything you want it to say. Imagine you knew a kid in
school whom you didn't like, and you decided to put insults and ugly pictures
you drew of that kid on your home page. Just because it's on the Internet, on
your home page, doesn't mean it's true. There are many things on the 'Net that
are put there by one person or group that has a certain opinion. Sometimes this
information is biased, which means it doesn't give you all the information and
opinions you might like to know about. Once in a while, you might even find
something that is really mean and hateful toward a person or group of people.
Remember that, just as with magazines or books, you shouldn't believe
everything you find on the Internet. Ask for help if you're not sure.
6. Who is the information meant for?
If you are looking for an easy explanation of how the heart works, and find a page on the Internet called
"Double Bypass Heart Surgical Procedures on Congenitally Diabetic
Patients", this is not going to be something you can use. That information
is probably meant for doctors, not for kids and students. When you find
something on the Internet, before taking lots of time to write it down, print
it out, or add it to your bibliography, read it through to find out if it's
written at a level you can understand.
7. What type of information is it? Is it a home page or an e-mail message?
You can get information from the Internet in many different ways: World Wide Web pages, e-mail discussions, and
so on. When doing research, any of these might be helpful, but you should be
very careful about using e-mail. If you send questions by e-mail to an expert
who can help you on a difficult subject, and they send you an e-mail reply,
it's a neat way to get information for a school report. But if you find someone
else's old e-mail message that has been put on a World Wide Web page, it might
not be as useful. Because you may not know who sent the e-mail, who replied to
it, whether the reply was from an expert, or when any of this happened, it's
difficult to tell if the information is true. If you aren't sure, check with a
parent, teacher, or librarian.
8. How should you list information from the Internet on your bibliography?
First you need to find out: who put the information on the Internet, what is the name of the page or file you have
been reading, when it was put on the Internet or updated (or when you read it,
if you can' find any other date), and what the Internet address is.
Stanstead College uses the APA Style of Citation for Electronic Sources.
Different teachers may want you to list Internet information in your bibliography in different ways. Ask your
teacher how he or she would like you to do it. Here is one way you can do it:
Name of Person (or Group) Who Provides the Information. "Title of Page You Are Looking At." Internet
Address. Date Page Was Posted, Updated, or Read.
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