Lesson 2:
Defining Research Needs

Objectives

Understand Your Assignment

Resource Types

Resources

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EWU Libraries

Resource Types

Web Sites

The world wide web is not a type of source – it’s a method of dissemination, one that virtually anyone can use to share their ideas if they are willing to put in the time. For individuals, costs are minimal. And because it’s a very cheap one compared to typesetting and mailing, more and more organizations are using their web presences to get their messages across. This includes the traditional sources of information: news organizations and scholarly publications.

The web is also a very fast way of disseminating information. Therefore it is a good place to look for very current or cutting-edge issues. More and more, the first place scholars discuss issues is online via blogs or repositories for drafts/pre-print versions of scholarly articles.

However, your professors may say “no web sites” for acceptable sources. They usually mean that they do not want you to used information that hasn’t gone through some sort of editorial/filtering process -- no personal web sites or advocacy organizations. If a New York Times article is acceptable, then a nytimes.com article should be acceptable as well.

Consider: Are web sites useful resources for your topic? Why or why not?