Politics in America
The 2000 Presidential Election


Newspaper Reporter At Typewriter

ENG 102 - Writing From Research
Professor Judy Johnson

Assignment #2: Evaluating Sources
Locate, examine, and evaluate 5 Websites that helped you learn about the 2000 Presidential election. Present your findings in an annotated bibliography.

Checklist for Evaluating Webpages
Search Engines
Writing Tips and Helpful Web Links

Checklist for Evaluating Webpages - the 5 Ws

  1. Who?
    1. Who wrote the page?
    2. Are credentials provided?
    3. Is there an About Us section, a mission statement, etc.?
  2. When?
    1. Is the page current? Dated?
    2. When was the page last updated? (Remember that individual pages may be updated at different times)
    3. Do the links work?
  3. Where?
    1. Where is the page published? Type of domain?
    2. Does the publisher take responsibility for the content?
    3. Will the page be there tomorrow?
  4. What?
    1. What is the content?
    2. Are quotes accurate?
    3. Are the facts documented? If so, who's the source?
  5. Why?
    1. What is the bias? Selling? Promoting? Ranting?
    2. Are links to other viewpoints provided? Balanced?
    3. Sponsorship?
    4. What is not said?
  6. Would you be better off visiting the library? Would a book or a journal article have better information?

Jigsaw - Website Evaluation Exercise

Do any of these questions apply to the evaluation of other types of sources, such as books or journal articles?

Search Engines and Subject Directories

Search Engines
Googlewww.google.com
Alta Vistawww.altavista.com
Fast Searchwww.alltheweb.com
Visit Our FAVORITE general web search engines for descriptions of and search strategies for these and other search engines.

Subject Directories
Librarians' Indexwww.lii.org
Yahoo!www.yahoo.com
Visit Our FAVORITE Subject Directories for descriptions of and search strategies for these and other subject directories.

Writing Tips and Helpful Web Links

Bothell Campus Library | University Libraries

For reference help, please contact Jessica Albano at jalbano@u.washington.edu
Last Updated 13 June 2000