Evaluative Report
1 Introduc tion
The use of internet sources for academic study has become very common over the last decade. This has led to considerable discussion on the acceptability of texts found on websites.
1.1 Background
As use of the internet has grown, so has its use as a research tool. However, not all websites are appropriate for academic study. This is because it is very much easier to publish on the internet than in traditional print form. More importantly, as Hartman
& Ackermann (2005, cited in Stapleton & Helms-Park 2005) point out, there is little or no editorial checking of internet texts.
1.2 Purpose
This report will look at two texts from the internet to evaluate their acceptability as academic sources.
1.3 Criteria
The criteria used in this report are based on those proposed by many universities, including Monash and ANU. These are:
• What website is the text on?
• Who is the author?
• What is the author’s purpose?
• When was the text written?
2 Desc ription of the two texts
The texts were found by using Google to search for ‘trusting web sources’. Both texts appear in the first 50 entries of the Google search.
2.1 Text one
The first text is ‘Consumer trust in e-commerce web sites: a meta-study’ on the website <http://dl.acm.org/>.
The website is a .org domain, and is the digital library of the Association for
Computing Machinery, an organisation providing resources for computing professionals. The home page provides links to a range of journals, conference papers and other academic style articles. The page is dated 2012.
2.2 Text two
The second text is titled ‘Proving trust on the web’ on the website <http://www. seomoz.org>. The website is a .org domain, and is the home of a commercial operation selling
Search Engine Optimisation software. The home page provides information about their product, and links to blogs. The website is kept up-to-date.
3 Evalua tion of the two texts
3.1 Website
The use of internet sources for academic study has become very common over the last decade. This has led to considerable discussion on the acceptability of texts found on websites.
1.1 Background
As use of the internet has grown, so has its use as a research tool. However, not all websites are appropriate for academic study. This is because it is very much easier to publish on the internet than in traditional print form. More importantly, as Hartman
& Ackermann (2005, cited in Stapleton & Helms-Park 2005) point out, there is little or no editorial checking of internet texts.
1.2 Purpose
This report will look at two texts from the internet to evaluate their acceptability as academic sources.
1.3 Criteria
The criteria used in this report are based on those proposed by many universities, including Monash and ANU. These are:
• What website is the text on?
• Who is the author?
• What is the author’s purpose?
• When was the text written?
2 Desc ription of the two texts
The texts were found by using Google to search for ‘trusting web sources’. Both texts appear in the first 50 entries of the Google search.
2.1 Text one
The first text is ‘Consumer trust in e-commerce web sites: a meta-study’ on the website <http://dl.acm.org/>.
The website is a .org domain, and is the digital library of the Association for
Computing Machinery, an organisation providing resources for computing professionals. The home page provides links to a range of journals, conference papers and other academic style articles. The page is dated 2012.
2.2 Text two
The second text is titled ‘Proving trust on the web’ on the website <http://www. seomoz.org>. The website is a .org domain, and is the home of a commercial operation selling
Search Engine Optimisation software. The home page provides information about their product, and links to blogs. The website is kept up-to-date.
3 Evalua tion of the two texts
3.1 Website