Assignment Content
Support Material and Research Let’s focus on using the Internet to find research. The World Wide Web has been called the world’s largest library. With a few key strokes, a few clicks, and a micro-second, we can access some of the world’s finest resources for information that we can use as support material (facts, statistics, expert opinion, examples, quotes, etc.) in our speeches. There are two major challenges that we have to deal with in using the Internet to do research: 1) efficiently getting to the exact information we need, and 2) evaluating the information and its source.
Some of you may have favorite search engines such as Google (http://www.google.com). Some of you may have never used a search engine. Below is an exercise in evaluating a web site that you find.
Assignment:
Research Exercise:
1. Visit the following web site to see five questions to ask when evaluating web resources.
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html
2. Choose a subject — any subject you would like. It can be the origin of the universe; it can be wallpaper! Just choose a subject for the purpose of this brief exercise– You WON’T be doing a speech on it — The topic is only for the purpose of this exercise.
3. Use your favorite search engine or Google www.google.com or Google Scholar http://www.scholar.google.com or other search engine to find some information on your topic you selected for this brief exercise.
4. Post in the complete web address (including http://) for two web sites that have information about your sample topic. This must be the full address (URL) that you see on the top of your screen. It is BEST to copy and paste the web address. Of course, you can retype it. But any typo you make in the address will make the site impossible for the instructor to visit the site.
5. Briefly describe what your sites(2) are about. Key words are fine. There’s no need even for sentences in this part of your assignment.
6. MOST IMPORTANT – Explain specifically (with descriptive examples) whether or not (and how or how not) your sites(2) meet or do not meet the criteria you found for evaluating web sites at the link provided in step number 1 above. In your post, you should be demonstrating that you visited the site in number 1 above and know what the 5 criteria are. And you need to demonstrate that you applied the criteria to the sites you found on the web for the purposes of this assignment.