5 practical tips for information gathering online for academic writing
By: William King

Tip #1: Look at the web page design.
There are two ways at interpreting web page visual appearance without reading the information on the page. If the page is design is exceptionally good, filled with gradients, flash presentations, animated graphics, sparkling colors, neon lights and smiley faces – all the things that we associate with advertising – chances are that the goal of the web page is to sell you something. This is not bad per se, but since there is commercial incentive involved, you should take that information with a grain of salt. Usually, the most authoritative sites, like academic journals, industry associations, or enthusiast web sites do not have the resources to higher cutting edge designers.
On the other hand, if the web page falls apart or is hard to read and or the design does not make sense and has “ads by google“ writer on the prominent parts of the pages, you are probably looking at the “made for AdSense“ (MFA) sites.

Tip#2: Does the site have extensive advertising?
Many people earn their living exclusively by putting up simple pages filled with ads. The point of such sites is for you to click on the advertisements, not to present the information. Although there is some on-topic information on the page, it usually is quite shallow, and servers as a bait for search engines to lure unsuspecting web surfers.

Tip#3: Look at the site‘s Page Rank.
Google Page Rank is the patented method for Google to measure web page quality. In a few words, it works like this: the more links from other websites a particular page has, the higher the Page Rank value is for this page. The higher the Page Rank value is, the more trust the page has. The highest possible Page Rank value is 10. A Page Rank value of 4 or higher is good indication of trustworthiness of the page. To see Page Rank values, you must install Google Page rank toolbar (http://toolbar.google.com/)

Tip#4: Look at who is linking to the site.
“Tell me who your friends are, and I will know who you are“. This proverb works on the Web as well. When in doubt of the quality of information on the web site, take a quick look at the incoming links to the site. Sites with authoritative information attract mentions and links from respected magazines, government reports, and academic studies. To see the links going to a particular website go to http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com and type link:www.sitename.com.

Tip#5: Look at the amount of pages the site has.
This one is easy. Generally, the more pages the website has the more trusted it is. The logic is simple – the more the person writes on the subject the more knowledgeable he is. To quickly see the number of site‘s pages, go to google.com and type site:www.sitename.com

Article Source: http://www.ArticleJoe.com

Michael Cedna writes www.essayclip.com/guides/sample-biography-essay“>sample biography essays at www.essayclip.com“>online essay writing service.

Please Rate this Article

5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5 

Not yet Rated