Evaluating Websites

Imagine that you are writing an essay that explores the effects electronic voting machines might have on the election results and on the election process as a whole. One type of sources you want to use are websites because they have the most current developments in the controversy now that we are getting ready for elections.

Using chapter 21 of Everything's an Argument, especially the list of questions on page 415, try to evaluate the sites listed below. Which ones would you use and why? Which ones would you avoid and why?

Posted by hristova on October 04, 2004 at 10:45 PM
Comments

Hello all,
To start off I would have total avoided Stever Robbins' web log. Mainly for 2 reasons I could not find another source that talked about him and gave him credibility. If you do look at his bio he might have graduated from these colleges but who knows for sure. And there is a Bartender's school on there. So I would not prefer to use this site. For the second site I would most likely use it because it is from a source that I can prove and read other Articles from. It is also publish from a very credible source but I am not to sure what IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) would have to do with the election. And the other problem with this site is that it is dated from over a year ago. So for small constant factual stuff I would use this site but for my main point I would not. IN the article that is written by Russell Madden I would use this one because there are many other source that use him and he has credible sources listed on his page. I would not base my entire paper on this guy but I would use him in my paper. On the final source it seems to be off a website that has only one view. So I would be careful in using this site because of data manipulation.
Jonathan

Posted by Jonathan Carrillo on October 5, 2004 04:21 PM

Hi,

I think that, the website i would avoid to use is "voting fraud" because it seems to be based on only one person whereas others are more like a result of team work. I think that they all have some strengths and weaknesses. They all have dates an most of them are updated regularly. Contact information is usually given and sources are also provided. Of course, you can never be 100% sure but I think that "voting fraud" has a little less credibility when compared to others despite the fact that its author gives sources.dates and biography...

See you all tomorrow...
Halil

Posted by Halil on October 5, 2004 08:20 PM

hey,
First of all, I would avoid using Stever Robbin's Weblog. It has no sources and without them he is not credible. Robbin's Weblog seems to be just like the blog. He just gave his opinion and thoughts about a controversial topic. The strongest two web sites to me were the Voting Fraud and the Black Box Voting. Even though Voting Fraud is plain, it has many refrences of where he got his info. from.
-Eduardo Arcos

Posted by Eduardo Arcos on October 6, 2004 02:00 AM

I think the Black Box Voting website is the most credible. It includes media sites, documentaries, academic research, and old articles to support the website's claims. The first website is simply a blog of someone's opinions. Though they probably used credible information to support their claim, you can't be too sure.

Posted by Nancy on October 6, 2004 09:50 AM

Hello,

After reading all the webpages listed, I came to the conclusion that Stever Robbin's Weblog should be avoided. He just talked about himself and gave his own opinions. I thought that the Black Box Voting site was very well presented. It showed a vast amount of information and numerous alternate sites. It also was setup very well.

Posted by Rakesh Mehta on October 6, 2004 11:57 AM

Basically, my comments are the same as above. I would not go with Stever Robbins at all. There is something that nobody has mentioned about the 2nd source. It is posted by an author in a non-profit organization(.org). I would use that one and the third one. The last site is one sided but I would still read through and critically view their main arguments.
See you guys in Class

Posted by Edgar on October 6, 2004 12:28 PM