Internet Sources

Up until fairly recently many courses, schools and educators wouldn’t allow use of internet sources at all. Some professors continue to believe that the internet lacks credibility but pundits claim the internet as an encyclopaedia, is at least as accurate as Britannica! Fortunately most of have emerged from the dark ages and have adjusted to the idea that the internet is actually a font (pun intended!) of useful, interesting, relevant and current information. These days students are able to use internet resources for term papers, essays and so forth and still write within APA, MLA or whichever, student and style guidelines.  

So for the student the only question that remains is how to determine which internet sources are credible and which ones aren’t? The biggest problem with internet sourcing is of course that any person can write anything on line. There is no peer review; the information doesn’t have to be real or honest. That puts students in the awkward position of having to determine whether site content has integrity. 

The number one rule of thumb seems to be that the authors or editors of the site are credible. If the authors are credible chances are good that the content is too. The second thing to look at is the purpose of the site itself. Many blogs are set up to extol the personal viewpoints of the site owners and are bound to be less informative and objective about their content. Educational or news sites on the other hand have a commitment to serve a purpose within the cyber community and are more likely to publish only reliable information.

The last thing it is important to look for when using the internet for information is the date of the post. Internet data can linger for a very long time. Checking when posts were updated will ensure you don’t use information that is maybe 10 years old! Also, these dates are required for some of the academic writing styles anyway.