ShmoopTube

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mouse the internet is full of shiny

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valuable nuggets of information however

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all the glitters is not gold there's a

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lot of stuff on the internet that's

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fool's gold

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it looks like reliable info but it

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definitely is not so it's important to

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be able to tell the good stuff from the

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bad we're not saying fool's gold is for

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fools but hey there's a reason it's not

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named smart people's gold so how do you

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avoid being a fool well first things

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first check out who wrote the article

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you're reading ideally the author should

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be an expert in the field you're

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researching if you're reading up on

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bears for instance you'll want to find

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sources written by wildlife researchers

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especially people who focus on bears in

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particular remember not all advanced

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degrees are equal when it comes to

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research if a maths professor saw some

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bears last week and decided to write an

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article about them that doesn't make

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them reliable source no matter how good

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they are at algebra if there's no author

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listed be wary the only exception to

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this rule is sites that end with edu or

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govt these sort of websites belong to

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universities nonprofit organization or

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governmental program so you usually

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trust that the folks who work there are

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doing good work still it's always a good

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idea to check out the source the South

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Arizona University of fakes and scams is

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no Harvard you should also make sure

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that the facts on the website can be

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confirmed and verified elsewhere it's

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very unlikely that one source has a

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monopoly on the truth so if you can't

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find other sources that agree well you

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might want to store those folk back

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unclosing the trash it's also a good

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idea to make sure the website is

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up-to-date the main page should have

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eight last updated date and ideally

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you'll want to use sites that are no

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more than a couple of years old think of

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it this way if you're reading about

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trends in computers that article from

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1998 about how colorful iMacs are going

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to be all the raids this year well they

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might be a bit out of date remember to

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make sure that the website is free of

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errors and general weirdness if it's

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full of broken links bad grammar strange

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formatting and kind of give the

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impression that a five year old put it

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together

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well maybe don't trust it too much

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they we trust the five-year-old big

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challenges n but do not with our

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research material you should also check

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whether the website references reliable

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sources look for a bibliography

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footnotes or general references to books

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journals or other reliable resources

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because this saying something true isn't

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enough to make it true no matter how

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fancy your website is great layout

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doesn't mean true and last but

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definitely not least you really need to

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make sure that the website is objective

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that means it shows both sides of an

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issue doesn't contain personal opinions

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and isn't trying to sell you anything

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like hair growth formula objectivity is

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tough but you can usually tell when a

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writer is trying to be objective or if

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they're just trying to sell you a new

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laptop that's it laptop not hair growth

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all right we'll follow these general

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guideline and you'll find yourself

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mining informational gold in no time

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well you could do the opposite and kill

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your essay with garbage but no you do

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you

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