Evaluating Sources

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Criterion

Role of the Media in Tobacco Control

Health Hazards of Tobacco: Some Facts

Secondhand Smoke: Big Lie

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Accuracy

University of Pennsylvania published the page. The information seems consistent with my general knowledge.

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Gives a great deal of statistics. The statistics were not referenced by any research or scientific organizations.

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The information is very different from what I learned about secondhand smoke.

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Authority

A specific author is not named. The University of Pennsylvania is referenced.† I was surprised to see the link page for U of P was to promote the university, not the topic.

The article itself does not introduce an author only after clicking on the arrow was I able to find that this page was a link from the World Health Organization.

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There were not any credentials noted for the author. The author made many mistakes in his writings, which made me immediately question his credibility and authority.

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Objectivity

Some advertising appears.†The information appears to be accurate.

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No advertising was present on the page.† The information was presented in a factual way.† The author presents a one sided view.

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The goal of the page was for the author to express his personal opinions about secondhand smoke.† There was an advertisement from The Smokers Bookstore.

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Currency

The article is not current.†It is based on advertising a specific event which happened May 31, 1994

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†Most of the research dates given in the article are no more recent than 1996, which leads me to believe that it is not a current article.

The site was not current.†It provided no links.

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Coverage

The links, although informative and interesting, do not complement the documents theme.

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The page was accessed for free.† It did not need to be downloaded for anything to open on the page.†The information is primarily text form.

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The site was frighteningly easily accessible. It was written in text form with many mistakes.

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Summary

This article confirmed how confusing links could be.† The links had nothing to do with the topic. For children this could put them at a dead end for continuing their research.

This article is informative.† Easy for children to obtain accurate information on a topic.

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This article confirmed how important it is as a teacher to guide your studentís research.† A child could read this article and be easily persuaded.

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