After searching for the basic keyword of your topic you were able to narrow your search by finding sources that looked useful to you and bookmarking them. The next step is to go back to those sources and see what they have to offer. This is the time when you might also want to refine your search by using more specific keywords. (Perhaps in your search you learned that Maui Jim makes all of their lenses polarized and since you want polarized lenses you have decided to buy Maui Jim sunglasses. then you might refine your keywords from "sunglasses" to "Maui Jim sunglasses").
When evaluating the usefulness of sources you must first determine if they are valid. Books are always edited by a publishing company prior to publication, which helps to ensure that they are accurate and well-written. However, websites are not generally edited by anyone outside of the organization creating the site, which means that there is no way to ensure that the information provided is correct. There are ways to be certain you are finding valuable sources, though.
One of the most obvious methods to check a website is to look at the URL. Sites ending with .com or .net are owned by companies who are providing you with information designed to persuade you to think what they want you to. On the other hand, sites with the ending .org are non-profit organizations that may be more reliable seeing as they receive no profit for their work (they can also be very persuasive at times too though so be aware). Sites ending in .gov are government site and generally found to be accurate. Finally, the sites with the ending .edu are from an educational institution of some sort. The key here is to find out what school is it from and whether it is a teacher or a student who authors it. Obviously, an instructors lecture notes are much more reliable than a student's blog.
After determing what type if institution owns that site, be sure to also check the references to find out where they get their information and the title page to find out who they are. Try to stick with sites from sources you have heard of before or are confidant are knowlegable in the area. Perhaps you could start with some general vocation information from the Department of Labor Occupational Outlook Handbook (http://www.dol.gov).
Find one source for each of the five careers (total of five sources) you have chosen. Once you have selected the five sources with what you believe is the strongest and most reliable information, document these sources using the template you already have saved on your local computer. This way you will be able to find these sites again, if you are not able to complete your research right now; you also have the information to put on your reference sheet and will not have to waste time finding it again when it comes time to complete the references page.
Created by Gayle Taylor
Last Updated August 8, 2007