First of all, I apologize for posting my comment with delay but I really hadn't noticed we had to do this work within Friday. Usually, Sunday is my big English-blogging-homework-day and this time it should have been Friday already. I'm sorry about that!!!
The criteria I usually refer to are very close to the ones I found on the links. I remember when I wrote my thesis my professor told me to be careful when choosing material from the Internet.
So I followed the criteria given in the first link:
"Is there a reference list or bibliography of corroborative evidence?"
"Is there a date when the site was last updated - how long ago did this happen?"
"Does the site seem to be permanent or part of a permanent organisation?"
I always make sure the websites are still up to date and where they found the information. As far as my thesis is concerned, I chose information based on researches and proper bibliographies only. I went to Google to see who the author was - if it wasn't written on the website - and to check what else the author had published regarding translation theories ( That's what my thesis was about.). In that way I made sure to select authors that really were involved with the topic and that they were "name-brands" I couldn't know before.
I think it is very important to see WHO wrote the articles I might found interesting and who made up the website. I mean, just as we mentioned last week, everyone can write just about anything in the Internet and therefore, the most important thing is to check if the website is of a University or known organization and if it's still getting updated regularly.
Furthermore, I pay attention to the language style, that is if the text is in scientific language or colloquial language. I think you can tell a lot of a text's reliability by the way it is organized and written. A reliable source for a thesis would probably be written in a very formal style - maybe taken from a book for educational purpose rather than just to give information.
Ok, once more: I'm sorry for being so late. See you in class.
Caroline
4 commenti:
Hi Caroline
I'm glad to read someone else trusted books more than websites as sources for their thesis! I checked a couple of things and read some stuff mostly for my own interest, but when it came to deciding a bibliography, well, there's nothing to it: library won hands down..!
I don't think my approach is much different now... I guess the biggest chance is the revelation of Wikipedia! Since I discovered it I admit my reluctance to credit online sources definitely decreased. I guess that's a good thing, even if I realise that some matters (usually the most obscure and un-cool) are best dealt with by books rather than the web. By and large, we may say that the web has everything, any info, but it tends to stay on the surface. Books may be harder to get, they're not usually 'friendly' nor 'easy-going' but if you're good enough as a book-hound you can find out almost amy topic, dealt with in a thorough way. Hopefully.
See you
Hi Caroline!
Do not worry, this week deadline was actually a bit unusual as we normally have to post our work by Sunday :-) Anyway, now I have the chance to read your nice post even though I will respond you in the same way I did with all the other members of the group…I noticed that this time in our messages we all expressed the same ideas (well, at least as regards the criteria)…I have the impression that we thought more differently from each other in the other “e-tivities”!
I also found the tips given by the universities quite interesting, although most of them were not new to me. Personally, I have nothing against the use of the Internet when writing a thesis; of course we must be very careful about what we choose. As you said, there are simple but fundamental rules to follow if we want our work to be “credible” and well-done: the first thing to do is to check who the author is, how the website is written and if it is updated.
I agree with Enrico when he says that often books are still more reliable than the Web when writing a dissertation, but I would like to point out it depends pretty much on the subject you are dealing with. Maybe if you are writing something about literature you will find books more appropriate, but I know many students who focused on parallel corpora or new translation tools (or translation theory! ;-)..) so they needed the Net much more than books. My thesis was about German proverbs and idioms, so for me it was more useful to visit websites and chat rooms and see how people communicate with each other than reading loads of books…Also because I just found a couple of them about that subject, nothing more :-D
Ok, see you later!!
Hi Caroline!
Don't worry about the delay! I had the same problem of yours! ;-)
I agree with your considerations about which criteria to use when comes to judge an online source. I have to admit I have always been judged the sites I visit, but only in an unconscious way. I mean, I've never actually thought about making a list of criteria. Now that I had the opportunity to do it I find myself much more critical than before! It's really difficult to find a real authoritative website among the unbelievable amount of sites that a normal search engine finds out!
Internet seems really endless!
Just an advice about your post's structure. I think it would be easier to read if you divide it into paragraphs. If you haven't had the chance till now, go and read Sarah's post titled "make a good post".
See you soon.
Bye bye.
Anna
Hi Caroline!
again..sorry for this terrible delay. I'm frustrated with this internet thing, really but this is the first real time I can get online for a bit longer time then 10 min. Anyways with this frustration I absolutely agree with you guys who support more the book-library point of view:) I mean, I love libraries and every time I go there I get about 15 books that I never really read anyways but just the idea of having them for some time is great. I also always feel like a real student when I sit in a library or read the real books then the online copies of them.
anyways that goes a bit far from your post I feel..What can I say about it though. As the others have said, last week we pretty much all wrote the same things. I liked your emphasis on the question of writer-I think it's easy to forget to think about writers while reading online. At least I felt like that when I read your post, I felt like I should think about that a bit more. So thank you:)!
see you on monday
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