1-3 Analyzing Websites

When doing research online, it’s especially important to critically evaluate the websites you wish to use because it is possible for anyone to make a webpage or a website.

Purpose/Motivation

Listed below are a few different reasons webpages or websites are created.  Included with each reason are a few questions you can ask yourself to help determine if this could be all or part of the motivation of an online source.

Sell a product or service

• Is the description overly positive?
• Are negative effects or drawbacks ignored or dismissed?
• Is it possible to buy the product from the page (or a page that is linked)?

Fundraise

• Is there a place or link to donate money?
• Is the page associated with a crowdsourcing platform like Kickstarter or GoFundMe?
• Is there a lot of future or conditional grammar? (This suggests that what is being fundraised does not yet exist, has not yet happened, or has not yet been fully evaluated.)

Trick or fool people

• Is the claim especially shocking or amazing? (For example, if a website claims a six-year old is able to cook like a professional chef)
• Does the claim seem too good or too terrible to be true? (For example, a company is willing to give you thousands of dollars to watch TV)
• Can you find any other sources with the same information?

Change people’s opinions

• Does the website resemble an argumentative or persuasive essay?
• Does the information present two sides of an argument but clearly favor one side?
• Is the language insistent? (For example, it urges that change must happen now)

Inspire

• Does the information focus on achieving goals or success?
• Do pictures or photos show people achieving goals (like standing on mountaintops) or reaching a state of joy or relaxation (like smiling in a field of flowers)?
• Is the information mostly anecdotal?

Educate/Inform

• Does the information appear unbiased?
• Is support and evidence presented with sources?

Ethos

Ethos is the credibility of a person or their work. In other words, does the author demonstrate that they have the knowledge and authority to write on the topic? Below are a few points that can help you evaluate ethos.

Writing skill / Errors

• If a webpage has many mistakes, like misspelled words, typos or poor grammar, it suggests that the material has not been reviewed by anyone other than the author. Scientists or professionals typically have their work reviewed by editors or peers.

Reputation

• Is the author or webpage associated with a larger institution or organization? If so, what kind of institution? (A university, a research group, a scientific journal, a news organization, etc.)
• Does the webpage indicate the author’s title or credentials, like degrees or publications?

Support

• Does the webpage thoroughly explain how or why it makes the claims it does? (For example, if the website is explaining that caffeine negatively affects sleep patterns, does it provide evidence, conduct a study or cite sources?)

Currency

• Does the website indicate when it was last updated?
• If there was an interview, study or experiment, is the date it was conducted included?

Relevancy

Even if the website meets all of the criteria above and appears trustworthy, it should be relevant to your topic. You may have found an amazing webpage on sleep paralysis, but if you’re writing a research paper on the evolution of mattress design and its effects on sleep, the information will be largely irrelevant.

Sometimes students are required to find a specific number of sources for a research paper or project and then select general quotes from irrelevant but trustworthy sources. However, this does not add to the scholarly value or credibility of their research.