Re: How to Cite

["Marie C. Paretti" <mparetti -at- RRINC -dot- COM>]

At 09:15 AM 12/5/97 -0700, Jill Burgchard wrote:
>I use the internet for research, but I'm cautious. We need to ask
>the same questions about articles on the net as we do about
>articles in journals and magazines:
>

Jill is right on-target here, and this becomes an important issue to tech
writers who use and create internet sights, and to anyone teaching tech
writing courses.  Having taught at the university level for several years,
I've seen students depending more and more on the Net for their research.
Perhaps because on the Net just about anything can be made to "look" good,
however, these students are often unable to assess the credibility of
various sites; to them John Doe's homepage, which may contain only personal
opinions, is just as good as a well-researched article put out by a
reputable research agency.

This means that for those who teach tech writing, teaching students how to
ask questions like the ones Jill listed is just as important as teaching
them good Web Design principles or strategies for interviewing SMEs.  If
they are going to use the Web, or create sites with links to other sites,
they (and we) need to ask these kinds of questions continually.

Marie


Marie C. Paretti
Department of English                           Recognition Research, Inc.
University of Wisconsin - Madison        Blacksburg, Virginia
mparetti -at- facstaff -dot- wisc -dot- edu                        mparetti -at- rrinc -dot- com

               Sometimes I feel like a dog
               standin' on a tool box
               in the back of a pickup truck
               doin' 90 round a corner
               just tryin' to hang on for dear life.
                                                      James Bonamy

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