Website_Evaluation_Tutorial_Accuracy

=Accuracy= media type="file" key="accuracy.mp3" width="240" height="20"
 * //What is Accuracy?//**

If you are going to use a website for a school research project, it is important the the website not have grammar and spelling mistakes. It is even more important that the website have correct information. The author might not have **checked** to see if his facts were correct before he posted the information.

In other cases, website authors might be trying to get you to agree with their opinion about a topic. Therefore, they might **misrepresent** or **leave out** information they disagree with. This is especially true for sites about social or political issues. It is always a good idea to use multiple sources of information, including books and websites when doing research so you can compare the facts in each source.

//**Checking for Accuracy**//

So ask yourself these questions about websites as you find them:
 * Does this page have any **grammar** or **spelling mistakes**?
 * Does the information make **common sense**?
 * Do facts in different **sources conflict** with each other?

Compare this timeline about the history of AIDS with this Snopes.com article.
 * //Does the information make sense?//**

//**Do facts in different sources conflict with each other?**//


 * 1.** You found this fact on the site while searching for information about gun control:

"Guns used 2.5 million times a year in self-defense. Law-abiding citizens use guns to defend themselves against criminals as many as 2.5 million times every year -- or about 6,850 times a day.1 This means that each year, firearms are used more than 80 times more often to protect the lives of honest citizens than to take lives.2 " Source: Gun Owners of America


 * 2.** During the same search, you found this Time magazine article that questions the statistic.


 * 3.** In the LRC, you found a book called the Encyclopedia of Gun Control and Gun Rights that criticizes the study.

//**Two of the three sources disagree with the third.**// We can probably challenge the **accuracy** of the fact.

Try it! Checking the accuracy of information

These two sites have opposing opinions about the causes of global warming. Click on the links below and find the quoted secitons. Skim the appropriate section. Then open a new tab or window and use a search engine to find a third site that agrees or disagrees with the viewpoint one of these pages. Give the web address and quote a fact or two from the third website.


 * Site #1: From:** EDF.org


 * "MYTH:** Global warming is just part of a natural cycle. The Arctic has warmed up in the past.
 * FACT:** The global warming we are experiencing is not natural. People are causing it**."

Site #2: From: National Center for Public Policy Research**

"Policymakers have been arguing for nearly a decade over what to do about global warming. Noticeably missing from this debate has been any mention of the fact that natural fluctuations in the Earth's temperature, not Man, is the likely explanation for any recent warming."