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WRTG 103 EAPP Critical Reading, Reasoning & Writing (Sloan)

Class Activity

Websites to Evaluate:

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In Class Presentation

When you review a website, remember to review its PARTS

Purpose

-What is the purpose of the information? Entertainment, education, commercial, something else?
-Who is the audience meant to be?

Authority

-Who wrote this?
-Is this author qualified to speak about this topic?
-What biases or beliefs is the author showing, if any?

Relevance

-Does this source answer your question?
-Where did the author get their information (can you tell)?

Timeliness

-When was this published?
-Has the topic changed at all since then?

Situation

-Do you need the information to be recent, or would an older source be just as good or better?
-Is this the best place to get THIS information? If you are using a source that cites another, could you find the original?
-What type of author is appropriate here? If you are interested in information about the government, for example, a government agency might be the most appropriate author type.
- What type of website it appropriate here? If you are interested in a college program, you’d want a .edu, for example. If you are interested in the mission of a non-profit organization, you will want to visit their .org directly.
-Do you need more background information before you can find the answers you need?

 

What do domain suffixes mean?

The end of a URL can provide valuable information about the nature of a website. Here are some of the most common suffixes in the United States and what they represent. Other countries may have their own variation on these suffixes (e.g., the United Kingdom uses co.uk instead of .com)

Domain suffix What it stands for Who can get one Example
.com Commercial

Anyone – typically businesses, blogs, personal websites

This is the most popular top-level domain.

democratandchronicle.com

visitrochester.com

innerloopblog.com
(fake news site)
.edu Educational

U.S.-based postsecondary institutions with institutional accreditation from an institutional accrediting body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education (more info).

(Note: Many universities allow faculty and students to maintain their own personal websites using the university's .edu domain.  Think critically before using content from a .edu website)

rochester.edu

harvard.edu

brookings.edu
.gov Government U.S.-based government and public sector organizations including federal, state, local, or territorial government entity; publicly controlled entity; or tribal government recognized by the federal government or a state government (more info).

monroecounty.gov

cityofrochester.gov

ny.gov
.org Organization Anyone – typically nonprofit websites including charitable, artistic, scientific, personal, educational, social, cultural and religious sites

un.org

hrw.org

nber.org

Rochester Area Newspapers