Website Evaluation
Website Evaluation
Assignment Expectations: As part of your Research Project, the second assignment requirement expects students to complete a Website Evaluation of TWO websites that are acceptable for college-level academic research and contain information related to their research topic. For this assignment, students will use a search engine of their choice (e.g., Google or Bing) to find appropriate websites related to their topics. After selecting, reviewing and analyzing your two websites, students should write a 250-word analysis for each website. Keep reading to find out more about where to find websites for this assignment and what your analysis should include. As always, if you have questions, please feel free to reach out to your instructor via email.
Assignment Directions: After selecting, reading and analyzing your websites, please make sure each analysis follows the format below and includes the following information.
First, before you get started, please note what you should not do for this assignment. Please do not use the following types of sites:
UMGC library databases (in other words, do not use any resources found in the library database like Jstor. You will use the library for these resources for later projects)
Do not use Wikipedia or any other wiki site (in fact, refrain from using these sites for any part of the research project)
Do not use any encyclopedia websites (i.e. Britannica.org. These sites are wonderful for general knowledge, but not for the requirements of this research project)
Do not use any sites that require a subscription (also, do not use any of these sites for the requirements of this research paper.)
Okay, now on to what your Website Analysis should include:
Format: Each Website Analysis should be typed in a word document, with 1-inch margins, double spaced, and include no less than 250 words.
Bibliography: At the top of each Website Analysis, students should provide a complete bibliographic entry. This complete bibliographic entry should include a formal citation, including the URL and your date of access. You should note that the required style for this class is Chicago Humanities Style (not the author/date variant). The Effective Writing Center created a short overview on using Chicago Humanities Style called “Brief Guide to Citing Sources in Chicago.” It includes a list of sources formatted in this style. The examples labeled N=footnote/endnote format and those labeled B=bibliographic entry. A copy of this guide is located in the Writing Resources section of Course Resources under Content of this LEO class site.
Analysis and Content: Each Website Analysis should include a detailed summary of the main points of the article – in your own words. Ultimately, this should be written within the first two paragraphs of your analysis and include:
Describe the content and purpose of the website
Determine the author, accuracy of information presented and website’s currency.
Explain in detail how and why you determined the site is acceptable for use in an academic research paper
Each website analysis should explain how the content pertains to your research
Explain how the site relates to your research topic or what you found on the site that relates to your topic
It is important that students share more than a simple sentence in this analysis. I would like to see a paragraph dedicated to this portion of the assignment.
