There are a lot of high-quality sources available freely on the web (via a search engine such as Google); however, many of the sites you will encounter are NOT acceptable for college-level academic work.
When deciding whether or not to use a source you’ve obtained via Google or another search engine, ask yourself:
- Who wrote or provided this information? The author should have expertise in the subject you are researching.
- If an organization, corporation, or government body is providing the information, does it have the credibility and reliability to write on this subject? (Sites ending in .gov are USUALLY acceptable; however, make sure the page you are viewing is not, for example, just an opinion article or a politician's campaign page, if that is not the information you are looking for.)
- Check that your source is NOT one of the things listed on your instructor’s research paper rubric under “Examples of inappropriate sources!”
Web portals or directories can help you to weed through some of the “debris” on the web. Some examples:
