Web Review: Pick
a historic event, person, or topic (bring in to class on Dec. 26)
from 1945 to the present. Overly broad topics will be narrowed down.
Research 3 websites, a total of three from the four
following categories: the federal government (.gov), education (.edu)
or organizations (.org), and public domain (.com)
Paper will be a combination of 5 shorter writing assignments:
1 page of historical significance of the event
1 page each of websites and their interpretations/portrayal
of event
2 page compare and contrast between pages, including
layout, appeal, etc
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.
"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)?
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?"
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.
seduffy@u.arizona.edu