INDV 103 Research Papers

INDV 103

1877 to Present

Everyone loves a research paper!

First Paper Assignment: Web Review

Web Review: Pick a historic event, person, or topic from 1877 to 2000. For the best grade, avoid overly broad topics, such as WWI and WWII, and bios of presidents.

Research 2 websites from these possible domains: the federal government (.gov), education (.edu), military (.mil), organizations (.org), and public domains (.com &.net). Do not use more than one website per domain type (i.e. do not use two .com sites or two .org).

Paper will consist of 3 key elements:

1 paragraph on the historical significance of the event, person, etc.
an examination of the interpretations/portrayal of event, person, etc. for each website. What story is told about the event?
Compare and contrast between pages, including layout, appeal, approach

One possible model to follow is an intro paragraph (historical significance), one paragraph each for the examination of the websites, and a concluding paragraph with the compare and contrast.

Alternatively, you could have the intro historical significance paragraph, and then three paragraphs each focused on a specific focus of comparison such as mentioned above.

A page means a full length page. 10 pt 12 pt font Times New Roman Double Spaced. Use short quotes in your analysis but avoid long quotes. Quotes more than three lines long will not count towards page length.

What if I don't know where to begin after picking my topic?

Try a search engine like www.google.com Put in your topic and pay attention to the domains (.org, .com, &). You may have to search through several pages of results so be patient.

If you find a potentially useful site, check for its links (if available) as an additional source tool.

The following material (abbrievated and used with permission from http://www.washburn.edu/cas/history/stucker/webreview.html offers differing types of questions to help frame your questions.

" Subject matter: What purpose is the website supposed to serve, how and how well does it fulfill it?

What is its purpose and is it clearly stated and fulfilled?
What audience is it intended to serve?
How complete and accurate are its contents and links?
Is the site easy to use?

In which of what many possible ways can historians use it?

Is it a source of primary documents (texts, pictures, data) [and how effective are they in the presentation?

Is it a good introduction to a topic, and/or point you to useful traditional print or other resources?

Authorship/Authority: Who created the site and its content?

Is it clear what (if any) organizations are sponsoring the site? One quick indicator usually comes with the website's URL. Websites produced under sponsorship of universities or government departments (a good bet for our topic) usually have URLs ending with "edu" or "gov." Non-profit and commercial organizations usually end their website URLs with "org" and "com." Be clear that non-profit doesn't always mean excellent - these offerings run the gamut from excellent to biased to truly terrible and/or useless. Also keep in mind that some excellent scholars have chosen to offer very useful websites through commercial web providers, and so these site URLs will end in "com." But a great many of the very best sites are non-profit, so it is a good idea in any search to start by looking to see if such a site does exist.
Is there a link to a page describing the identity and/or goals of the site's authors and/or sponsors? If there are any biases are they clearly stated? (Ex: the National Organization for Women clearly states their feminist philosophy and advocacy.)

Is any advertising included on the site, and if so, is it clearly differentiated from the main site content? Is it likely in anyway to limit or bias this content (an addictive substance on a health advice site)? "