This document provides guidance for evaluating the credibility of a web page. It suggests checking that the author is named and credentialed, looking for spelling and grammar errors, ensuring the page has a recent date and working internal links, finding independent sources that corroborate the information, and assessing whether the page is objective or intended to sell, support, or parody something. Credible pages will have named experts, few errors, current content, and independently verifiable facts without bias.

1. Web Page Evaluation

2. Credible The authors name and contact information should be present. Anonymous Articles are suspicious. What is the authors expertise? Personal webpages are sometimes marked with a (~). This should be considered when determining an authors credibility. Spelling and grammatical errors are signs of sloppy work. Check with snopes.com .

4. Current There should be a current date on the page. Do the links to other pages/sites still work? Dead links are sometimes an indicator of a site that is infrequently updated.

6. Accurate You should be able to find other sources that agree with the information within the site. The author should provide evidence for his/her ideas. A bibliography or works cited should be included. If the information is forged it should be disregarded. If the information is 2 nd hand it should be substantiated with another source.

8. Objective The URL extension .edu, .com, .gov or .org can help identify the purpose of the site & therefore the possibility of bias. Various points of view should be presented. Who uses the site or endorses it can be an indicator of the sites alliance with biased organizations. (google – link:all or part of the url) Determine the intent of the site. Is it trying to sell something? Or get your support for issue or candidate? Or is it for fun, a parody or satire?