Chapter 3: Evaluating Sources for Academic Work

When you look for general information online, you will probably use Google to search for specific information. Google is a useful site to find any general information. It gives you news, visual images including videos, but when searching for academic standard materials, these (.com) sites are not so reliable.

If you google the words “World Heritage,” the site shows 85,500,000 results (see Figure 3.1). This includes personal opinions of “World Heritage.” These days, anyone can create a website and upload any information online. Of course, you can find international organization (.org) or government sites (.gov) by using Google.

Another popular site that students tend to use is Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia. It is available in a range of languages, but it is not a reliable site for writing an academic paper. Wikipedia is created based on a belief that everyone should have access to knowledge for free; therefore, the site has an Edit button on the right-hand corner to allow users to add, omit, and change any information on the site. Even if a person is not an expert on “World Heritage,” she or he can easily manipulate the information on Wikipedia. In this sense, it is not a reliable site.