Assignment TWO

Hello students! Congratulations to those of you you have successfully emailed me the outline for the "Obama's childhood and teenage years" research. You will be receiving individual emails from me to confirm that I have received it.

For our next assignment we will continue to look at the ways you can judge what makes an Internet source reliable.

2. Choose one of these topics:

A. In the past ten years, has teenage pregnancy in the United states increased, decreased or stayed the same?
B. In the past ten years, what age groups and what ethnic groups have shown the most increase in being diagnosed with AIDS?
C. What are the leading causes of the current economic recession in the United States?

4. Closely examine the internet site and fill out the work sheet.
5. Hand in the work sheet.

REQUIRED READING! READ THIS!!

WHO CREATED THE WEBSITE?
Find out who wrote the information on the website, and write down those details.

ASK YOURSELF: Who are they? Who is the author of the website? What organization or group is behind it?

ARE THEY REPUTABLE?

Have you already heard about the authors or institutions behind the website and do you know that they're reputable already? (for instance, students suggested that one might go to merriam-webster.com, because we already know that they are a good company that publishes dictionaries.)

Always verify your information by looking at more than one reputable source.
Read the information on the website carefully. Is it sound? Does it make sense? Does it seem credible?
Determine who wrote the website by looking at “Contact Us,” or “About Us,” or the citations and bibliography at the bottom, or
Verify your source by making sure you look at more than one source.

ARE THEY RELIABLE? Is there a second website that confirms the information on that website?

When did they update their page last?
Google the owner and/or author.

WHAT DOES THE URL TELL YOU?
Go back to the root directory of the website to see who hosted it. For example, in the url http://www.columbia.edu/texts/religion/philosophy.html, the root directory is www.columbia.edu. When looking at the root directory, look for the type of website it is. You can find that out by looking at the letters that come after the first dot. For example:

.org = organization (non-profit)
.edu = college or university (- usually. Sometimes it’s a school system.)
.net = is a commercial designation. (In other words, anyone can get it.)
.com = company or commercial. Anyone can have one.
.gov = U.S. Government web site.
.info = information about some agency or group.