Using the Web for Research

 By Jakob Iversen, UW Oshkosh, June 2002.

In this course, you are likely (and encouraged) to use the web as a source of information. However, just as the Internet is a wonderful source, it also has some pitfalls associated with it. With this document, I want to point out a few facts and give some references to more information that you may use in preparing the assignments.

In your professional life you are likely to face tasks similar to the ones assigned in this course (at least to the point where you need to use the web to search out some facts). It is my hope that the pointers in here may help you also later on. If you make mistakes in class you may receive a low grade on an assignment– in the real world you may lose your job.

Anyway, on with the show:

  1. Assume that all material on the Internet is copyrighted. It is therefore never OK to copy anything without proper quoting. And the use of direct quotes should be minimized. It is much more effective to paraphrase and use a reference. See this site for more information: http://www.hamilton.edu/academics/resource/wc/AvoidingPlagiarism.html
  2. Follow a consistent style in referencing web pages. These must as a minimum include: Title of page, date of access, URL (to specific page, not home page or menu). If available, the following should also be included: Author, organization, and date of publication. The following pages have more information: http://www.apastyle.org/elecmedia.html and http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/citex.html
  3. Not everything on the web is true and trustworthy. Study this page for more information: http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/evalcrit.html
  4. All the links above and others were listed on Polk Library’s web site: http://www.uwosh.edu/library/citing.html

 All sites referenced in this document were accessed on August 20, 2003.

If at any time you are in doubt about what materials/sites to use and how to use them, you are more than welcome to contact me for more instruction.

Update on 9/3/03:

This issue is timely. Here is an article from today's New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/03/education/03CHEA.html?th