Evaluating Sources: Good CARBS vs. Bad CARBS
Before you use a source, ask yourself if your source is:
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CurrentDo the links still work? What are the dates of Information included in a bibliography or works cited?
Example Website |
Accurate & AuthoritativeAuthor is an expert in a relevant field
They have a works cited or in text citation Links to similar information outside the website Example Website |
RelevantIs the information comprehensive enough or is it superficial?
What audience is the information appropriate for? Is it at an academic level? Advertising frequently reduces relevancy. Any grammatical errors or typos? Example Website |
Bias-FreeWhat is the purpose of the site? What is their point of view? Look for exaggeration, over-generalization, opinion as fact, charged words, and confirmation bias. Who funds or sponsors the group or web site? No advertising, especially about the same topic. Example Website |
Reading URLs
URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. It's a unique ID that is used to retrieve a specific webpage. URLs are used because they are more human-friendly. Instead of just typing in the numerical IP address which would be hard for humans to memorize, we can enter in the name of a website, which is much easier for us to remember and understand. You can learn a lot about your source by reading its URL.
URLs follow this format: Hyper text transfer protocol://servername.domain/directory/subdirectory/filename.filetype
Example: http://www.library.arizona.edu/about/faq/index.html
Domain Names: The domain name are the letters that follow directly after the server name (what we more often call the website name). Examples of domain names include .edu, .k12, .com, .gov, .mil, .org, and .net.
Country Domain Names: Some domain names indicate the country where the website is hosted. For example, .mx, .jp, .au, .uk, .us, .cn.
Personal Webpages: Some organizations provide personal webpages to members. This is a common practice at colleges and universities. You can sometimes tell if the webpage is personal by looking for ~name. For example: http://www.nku.edu/~gartigw/columns_files/0701%202007%20January%20-%20Holocaust%20Deniers%20(cropped).pdf
or www.bright.net/~nixe/.
Finding Authors for Citations: If you can't find the author of a source on the About Us, Home page, or individual article you are citing, then you can truncate or shorten the URL and use the name of the site (the servername above) as the author name. Keep in mind however that you still need to consider if the source is reliable, especially if you don't know who wrote it.
URLs follow this format: Hyper text transfer protocol://servername.domain/directory/subdirectory/filename.filetype
Example: http://www.library.arizona.edu/about/faq/index.html
Domain Names: The domain name are the letters that follow directly after the server name (what we more often call the website name). Examples of domain names include .edu, .k12, .com, .gov, .mil, .org, and .net.
Country Domain Names: Some domain names indicate the country where the website is hosted. For example, .mx, .jp, .au, .uk, .us, .cn.
Personal Webpages: Some organizations provide personal webpages to members. This is a common practice at colleges and universities. You can sometimes tell if the webpage is personal by looking for ~name. For example: http://www.nku.edu/~gartigw/columns_files/0701%202007%20January%20-%20Holocaust%20Deniers%20(cropped).pdf
or www.bright.net/~nixe/.
Finding Authors for Citations: If you can't find the author of a source on the About Us, Home page, or individual article you are citing, then you can truncate or shorten the URL and use the name of the site (the servername above) as the author name. Keep in mind however that you still need to consider if the source is reliable, especially if you don't know who wrote it.