WIX.COM Good website making website.
This week me and Amanda taught a lesson about research. This was some useful information about internet searching that I gave to the students as part of a task.
Research guidance
The Internet is a vast source of information
It connects millions of computers around the world - computers belonging to all sorts of people and organisations. All these computers hold information, some of which is free for everyone to access and use.
Perhaps some of it could help you?
Information comes from a wide variety of sources such as:
Organisations
Informal Organisations
Publications
The Media
Individuals
Libraries
Special interest groups
Books
TV
Teachers
Colleges
Chat rooms
Newspapers
Radio
Librarians
Schools
Blogs
Magazines
Videos
Experts
Universities
Wikis
Reports
DVDs
Colleagues
Governments
Email lists
Pictures
MP3s
Friends
Companies
Family
Shops
Famous media practitioners
Museums
ORGANISATIONS
Top of Form 1
Most organisations now have their own website.
Let's look at some that might help Media and Communication students:
Most national media-related organisations have a Web presence that contains information about their role, mission and activities, with links to information and Internet resources in that subject.
ONLINE NEWSPAPERS AND NEWS SERVICES
Top of Form 1
Most national and local newspapers and news broadcast services have Internet sites where you can check the latest headlines and read articles online.
How does the information they offer on the Web compare to the information they offer in print or on the airwaves?
Some offer far more on the Web than they do in print/on the airwaves
Others offer far less on the Web than they do elsewhere
ELECTRONIC JOURNALS AND BOOKS
Top of Form 1
A large number of journals and a growing number of books are now available in electronic format on the Web.
Journals are increasingly available online but access to their content can vary. Some are also published in print while some are only on the Web. Some can be viewed in full for free, others you have to pay for. Some can be read in full online, others only give the titles and possibly abstracts of articles, so you either have to purchase the article online or buy or borrow a print copy.
ARTICLES, REPORTS AND GUIDELINES
Top of Form 1
Individual articles, reports and guidelines can frequently be found on the Internet.
Articles may be part of an online newspaper or journal or authors may have put them on the Web themselves.
Many governmental white papers and reports published within the public domain are made available on the Web.
Media production organisations will usually make their editorial guidelines available, usually intended primarily for those undertaking or wishing to undertake work for the organisation and in cases like the BBC as a requirement of their public service remit.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATABASES
Top of Form 1
If you are conducting a literature search on a particular subject using bibliographic databases will help you to locate sources of information.
Journal articles, books and conference papers are often indexed in bibliographic databases, which are updated frequently and therefore keep you continually informed about what is being published in your subject.
The Internet can provide quick access to a number of bibliographic databases, however Many will be subscription services. You should therefore contact your library to find out about access within your own institution.
LIBRARY CATALOGUES
Top of Form 1
A library catalogue is a database of a library's holdings.
Your university or college library should be your first port of call, but you may want to look farther afield.
Many libraries, including academic libraries, make their catalogues freely available for members of the public to search. This can be useful to help you identify potentially useful publications. To help you further there are a number of services that allow you find and search more than one catalogue at a time:
INTERNET GATEWAYS
Top of Form 1
With the body of scholarly information available online growing ever larger, specialist Internet resource catalogues can be a useful supplement to a library search.
Internet gateways, often referred to as subject gateways, are maintained by academics and subject experts who track down the best resources on the Web, evaluate sites for quality, validity and relevance and arrange what they find in a logical way, thereby helping you to avoid a lot of the less than useful results that a typical basic search engine search turns up.
BLOGS, WIKIS AND EMAIL DISCUSSION LISTS
Top of Form 1
New Web technologies offer some innovative new ways of using the Internet to communicate.
Blogs
Blogs have become an enormously popular method of self-publishing on the Internet. They are essentially websites where comments are posted chronologically in a diary format. Blogs provide the sort of opportunities for independent Web content and channels of communication sought after by many budding media practitioners.
Wikis
Wikis are collaborative websites which allow contributors to add and edit content collectively, potentially growing to become significant sources of information and research on the Internet. Here's an example of a media-related wiki:
Email discussion lists
These predate blogs and wikis and have proved to be popular with individuals seeking to communicate and share ideas and information with others as part of an online community.
People often make some common mistakes when they search the Internet:
They use the wrong search tool for the job
They don't plan a good search strategy
They don't choose the best keywords to search with
SEARCH TOOLS
Top of Form 1
Let's look at some tools for searching the Internet
There are three main types of Internet search tools, all of which offer something slightly different. You will need to understand more about these tools before you can decide which is most suitable for your purposes
Search Engines
Specialist Search Tools
Library Websites
SEARCH ENGINES
Google
PROS
Useful if you want to find a very precise piece of information
Will find something on every subject imaginable
CONS
Can give you too many results –time consuming to sort through
Can return lots of irrelevant or inappropriate information
SPECIALIST SEARCH TOOLS
Specialist Internet search tools aim to help a particular audience find high quality websites for their particular needs.
They are often created by specialist organisations (eg. universities, governments, professional groups) who often employ qualified subject experts to select and organise websites under subject headings, and write descriptions of the sites. Examples include:
Intute An Internet search engine aimed at the UK higher education community providing access to evaluated arts and humanities Internet resources. Part of the Intute service.
Intute (the organisation that built this tutorial!) - an Internet search service run specifically to help students and staff in UK universities and colleges find educational and research materials on the Internet. Intute is run by a national network of university researchers and librarians.
Arts and Humanities Data Service A UK national service aiding the discovery, creation and preservation of digital resources in and for research, teaching and learning in the arts and humanities.
PROS
Good if you need trustworthy results for serious work or research
You get fewer, but more relevant results, as the subject specialists have filtered out a lot of the inappropriate sites
CONS
If you are not their intended audience they probably won't give you relevant results
They may bring back too few results, if you are looking for very specific information or for general or popular information
LIBRARY WEBSITES
Top of Form 1
Your university or college library website provides details of its hard copy and electronic collections and how to access them.
This is likely to be a key search tool for your studies / research.
Each library has different databases and access arrangements so you need to check locally what is on offer. However, many library websites have:
Library catalogues - search for books on your reading list.
Access to full text databases These can include commercial databases, electronic journals, ebooks, newspaper databases and more. Sometimes these databases appear on a separate area of the library website.
Help in using resources. Many libraries offer online tutorials or face to face training in finding information and the use of online resources.
PROS
Your library's resources have been purchased to support your studies
The quality will be high
You can often find more authoritative resources than on Google
Librarians can help you with your searching techniques
CONS
Some resources will only be available in print
Passwords may be needed to access some resources, particularly if you are working off campus
You may need to allow time to search several databases as cross searching of databases is rarely possible
Access to electronic resources (apart from library catalogues) is usually restricted to current staff and students of an institution
SEARCH STRATEGY
Top of Form 1
Rather than just rushing into a search, you will really improve your chances of finding the information you need if you take a minute to think about the best keywords and search terms before starting your search.
This is what we call developing a "search strategy":
What exactly is the topic you're searching for? Example: The popularity of Bollywood films in the UK
What are the 3 or 4 keywords or concepts for your topic? Example: Bollywood, film, UK
Are there any similar words that describe each of these concepts? Example: film - cinema; movies
Are there any other more specific keywords that could limit your search? Example: UK could refer to Scotland, Wales, England, Northern Ireland
How can you combine these keywords together to search? You can combine keywords together using "operators" (linking words). The most common are AND and OR: Example: Bollywood AND film returns Web pages containing both words; film OR cinema returns Web pages containing either the word film or cinema. N.B. Phrase searching usually requires quotes, but worth checking the Help page of the search tool you are using to be sure; case is important for your operators - they will be ignored otherwise!
Search! Try out your search phrases in a search tool, remembering to make a note of any useful websites you find. If you don't find the information you need quickly, try using different keywords and combinations of search terms.
Google: Advanced Search Tips a quick guide to getting the best from this world-famous search engine
Search Engine Watch: Web Searching Tips some interesting links to other guides and sites that can help improve your Internet searching.
Top of Form 1
Not everything you read on the Internet is true or relevant
There's so much material on the Internet that finding the right information can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. A lot of the information available will be irrelevant and not be of the calibre you require.
Why does the quality and relevance of information vary so much? Think about it...
anyone can put something on the Internet - an amateur or an expert
a website can be hosted anywhere in the world but its information may only be relevant to a specific place - information concerning Brazil may not be of relevance to someone in Newcastle
they can say anything they like - be it true or false
and leave it there as long as they like - even if it goes out of date
or change it without warning - perhaps even remove it completely
Think about how the Internet compares with a library.
A book on a library shelf has been checked at least three times by different people:
the author checked their work
the editor has double-checked it
the publisher decided it was good enough to publish
it may have been reviewed
a librarian selected the book for the library
Information on the Internet has not always been checked.
Top of Form 1
It's up to you to judge what is trustworthy!
Learn to make good decisions about the relevance and quality of information on the Internet.
Remember, your Google search results might list:
Official governmental information next to chat rooms full of gossip!
encyclopaedias next to comic strips!
broadsheet newspapers next to underground fanzines!
The Royal Television Society website next to the website of a school student!
Examine the evidence Ask questions Consider the motives of people providing information Do not trust the information until you have found a good reason to do so
Top of Form 1
When looking at a website ask yourself the "three Ws":
Who?
Where?
When?
WHO?
Top of Form 1
Think about who is providing the information
Remember, anyone can say anything they like on the Internet.
Ask yourself:
Who has written the information?
Who has published it?
Are they a trustworthy source of information?
Are they trying to persuade me / sell me something / inform or misinform me?
Useful Evidence
You can get clues to help you answer these questions by exploring the site. Look out for:
The author's name
The name of the organisation publishing the information
The About Us section
The Contact Details (address / email)
The URL (more on this later in this section)
JUDGE WHERE
If you thought you were looking at a site offering work to newly qualified journalists in the UK and saw it was based in the Belgium would you be suspicious?
JUDGE WHEN
If you were looking for details of a printing and publishing course would you want information from ten years ago or from last year?
URL stands for "Uniform Resource Locator" and is the Web address of the page you are accessing. You'll usually see one at the top of your browser when you have a Web page open. They look something like this: http://www.intute.ac.uk/news/index.html
What can a URL tell us?
URLs may look tricky to unravel, but the best way to work out "who" and "where" is to break down the URL into its component parts. Let's look at the following Web address in detail: http://www.intute.ac.uk/news/index.html
URL
What's this?
Tell me more...
http://
Transfer Protocol
The first part of the URL is called the protocol. It tells your browser how to deal with the file that it is about to open. The most common you will see is HTTP, or Hypertext Transfer Protocol.
www.intute
Server Name
This refers to the computer (or server) where the Web pages or files you want to view are hosted. It usually contains the name of the organisation responsible for the site; in this case, "intute" (representing Intute).
ac
Top Level Domain/Organisational Code
This tells you something about the type of organisation responsible for the site (see below for more information).
uk
Country Code
This tells you in which country the site is hosted (find out more below).
news
Directory
This is a specific folder of information on the server (although it's not always given). There can be any number of these in a URL, indicated by "/" characters.
index.html
File Name / File Type
This is the file you are, or will be viewing. In this case, .html is the file extension. This can change depending on the type of file: eg .mov is a video file; .doc is a document; .gif is an image.
More clues: looking at organisational codes
You can often find out more about the nature of the organisation that owns the server from the organisation code. For example:
.ac, .edu academic or educational servers
.co, .com commercial servers
.gov government servers
.org non-governmental, non-profit making organisations
Note that different countries can have different codes for the same type of organisation. For example, a university server may have a .ac code in the UK (ac is short for "academic") but a .edu code in the USA (edu is short for "educational").
Top of Form 1
More clues: looking at country codes
You can sometimes find out more information about the country in which the server is based from the country code. For example:
.au Australia
.ca Canada
.de Germany
.fr France
.uk United kingdom
Note however, that a country code will not always be included in a URL. Many American sites for example, will not have the country code (.us) in their URL.
Warning!
URLs can sometimes mislead. For example, the URL: http://gatt.org/ could plausibly be the address of an organisation promoting the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, i.e. the World Trade Organisation. The site itself looks very much like the official site of the WTO, but in fact it is a satirical site by a group of activists, who simply bought the domain with a credit card. Hence URLs are useful as a guide, but they are not a definitive authority on the source of information.
†
PRIMARY
SECONDARY
TERTIARY
DEFINITIONS
Sources that contain raw, original, un-interpreted and unevaluated information
Sources that digest, analyze, evaluate and interpret the information contained within primary sources. They tend to be argumentative.
Sources that compile, analyze, and digest secondary sources. They tend to be factual.
Examples; Primary
Autobiography, Correspondence, Interview, Poetry/Song, Personal Narrative, Diaries
Secondary;
Biography, Criticism & Interpretation, History, Law & Legislation, Psychological, Political or Religious aspects, Public Opinion, Reports
Tertiary;
Bibliography, Chronology, Classification, Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, Hand books, Guide books, Indexes, Statistics, Tables, Directories
This week me and Amanda taught a lesson about research. This was some useful information about internet searching that I gave to the students as part of a task.
Research guidance
The Internet is a vast source of information
It connects millions of computers around the world - computers belonging to all sorts of people and organisations. All these computers hold information, some of which is free for everyone to access and use.
Perhaps some of it could help you?
Information comes from a wide variety of sources such as:
Organisations
Informal Organisations
Publications
The Media
Individuals
Libraries
Special interest groups
Books
TV
Teachers
Colleges
Chat rooms
Newspapers
Radio
Librarians
Schools
Blogs
Magazines
Videos
Experts
Universities
Wikis
Reports
DVDs
Colleagues
Governments
Email lists
Pictures
MP3s
Friends
Companies
Family
Shops
Famous media practitioners
Museums
ORGANISATIONS
Top of Form 1
Most organisations now have their own website.
Let's look at some that might help Media and Communication students:
Most national media-related organisations have a Web presence that contains information about their role, mission and activities, with links to information and Internet resources in that subject.
ONLINE NEWSPAPERS AND NEWS SERVICES
Top of Form 1
Most national and local newspapers and news broadcast services have Internet sites where you can check the latest headlines and read articles online.
How does the information they offer on the Web compare to the information they offer in print or on the airwaves?
Some offer far more on the Web than they do in print/on the airwaves
Others offer far less on the Web than they do elsewhere
ELECTRONIC JOURNALS AND BOOKS
Top of Form 1
A large number of journals and a growing number of books are now available in electronic format on the Web.
Journals are increasingly available online but access to their content can vary. Some are also published in print while some are only on the Web. Some can be viewed in full for free, others you have to pay for. Some can be read in full online, others only give the titles and possibly abstracts of articles, so you either have to purchase the article online or buy or borrow a print copy.
ARTICLES, REPORTS AND GUIDELINES
Top of Form 1
Individual articles, reports and guidelines can frequently be found on the Internet.
Articles may be part of an online newspaper or journal or authors may have put them on the Web themselves.
Many governmental white papers and reports published within the public domain are made available on the Web.
Media production organisations will usually make their editorial guidelines available, usually intended primarily for those undertaking or wishing to undertake work for the organisation and in cases like the BBC as a requirement of their public service remit.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATABASES
Top of Form 1
If you are conducting a literature search on a particular subject using bibliographic databases will help you to locate sources of information.
Journal articles, books and conference papers are often indexed in bibliographic databases, which are updated frequently and therefore keep you continually informed about what is being published in your subject.
The Internet can provide quick access to a number of bibliographic databases, however Many will be subscription services. You should therefore contact your library to find out about access within your own institution.
LIBRARY CATALOGUES
Top of Form 1
A library catalogue is a database of a library's holdings.
Your university or college library should be your first port of call, but you may want to look farther afield.
Many libraries, including academic libraries, make their catalogues freely available for members of the public to search. This can be useful to help you identify potentially useful publications. To help you further there are a number of services that allow you find and search more than one catalogue at a time:
INTERNET GATEWAYS
Top of Form 1
With the body of scholarly information available online growing ever larger, specialist Internet resource catalogues can be a useful supplement to a library search.
Internet gateways, often referred to as subject gateways, are maintained by academics and subject experts who track down the best resources on the Web, evaluate sites for quality, validity and relevance and arrange what they find in a logical way, thereby helping you to avoid a lot of the less than useful results that a typical basic search engine search turns up.
BLOGS, WIKIS AND EMAIL DISCUSSION LISTS
Top of Form 1
New Web technologies offer some innovative new ways of using the Internet to communicate.
Blogs
Blogs have become an enormously popular method of self-publishing on the Internet. They are essentially websites where comments are posted chronologically in a diary format. Blogs provide the sort of opportunities for independent Web content and channels of communication sought after by many budding media practitioners.
Wikis
Wikis are collaborative websites which allow contributors to add and edit content collectively, potentially growing to become significant sources of information and research on the Internet. Here's an example of a media-related wiki:
Email discussion lists
These predate blogs and wikis and have proved to be popular with individuals seeking to communicate and share ideas and information with others as part of an online community.
People often make some common mistakes when they search the Internet:
They use the wrong search tool for the job
They don't plan a good search strategy
They don't choose the best keywords to search with
SEARCH TOOLS
Top of Form 1
Let's look at some tools for searching the Internet
There are three main types of Internet search tools, all of which offer something slightly different. You will need to understand more about these tools before you can decide which is most suitable for your purposes
Search Engines
Specialist Search Tools
Library Websites
SEARCH ENGINES
PROS
Useful if you want to find a very precise piece of information
Will find something on every subject imaginable
CONS
Can give you too many results –time consuming to sort through
Can return lots of irrelevant or inappropriate information
SPECIALIST SEARCH TOOLS
Specialist Internet search tools aim to help a particular audience find high quality websites for their particular needs.
They are often created by specialist organisations (eg. universities, governments, professional groups) who often employ qualified subject experts to select and organise websites under subject headings, and write descriptions of the sites. Examples include:
Intute An Internet search engine aimed at the UK higher education community providing access to evaluated arts and humanities Internet resources. Part of the Intute service.
Intute (the organisation that built this tutorial!) - an Internet search service run specifically to help students and staff in UK universities and colleges find educational and research materials on the Internet. Intute is run by a national network of university researchers and librarians.
Arts and Humanities Data Service A UK national service aiding the discovery, creation and preservation of digital resources in and for research, teaching and learning in the arts and humanities.
PROS
Good if you need trustworthy results for serious work or research
You get fewer, but more relevant results, as the subject specialists have filtered out a lot of the inappropriate sites
CONS
If you are not their intended audience they probably won't give you relevant results
They may bring back too few results, if you are looking for very specific information or for general or popular information
LIBRARY WEBSITES
Top of Form 1
Your university or college library website provides details of its hard copy and electronic collections and how to access them.
This is likely to be a key search tool for your studies / research.
Each library has different databases and access arrangements so you need to check locally what is on offer. However, many library websites have:
Library catalogues - search for books on your reading list.
Access to full text databases These can include commercial databases, electronic journals, ebooks, newspaper databases and more. Sometimes these databases appear on a separate area of the library website.
Help in using resources. Many libraries offer online tutorials or face to face training in finding information and the use of online resources.
PROS
Your library's resources have been purchased to support your studies
The quality will be high
You can often find more authoritative resources than on Google
Librarians can help you with your searching techniques
CONS
Some resources will only be available in print
Passwords may be needed to access some resources, particularly if you are working off campus
You may need to allow time to search several databases as cross searching of databases is rarely possible
Access to electronic resources (apart from library catalogues) is usually restricted to current staff and students of an institution
SEARCH STRATEGY
Top of Form 1
Rather than just rushing into a search, you will really improve your chances of finding the information you need if you take a minute to think about the best keywords and search terms before starting your search.
This is what we call developing a "search strategy":
What exactly is the topic you're searching for? Example: The popularity of Bollywood films in the UK
What are the 3 or 4 keywords or concepts for your topic? Example: Bollywood, film, UK
Are there any similar words that describe each of these concepts? Example: film - cinema; movies
Are there any other more specific keywords that could limit your search? Example: UK could refer to Scotland, Wales, England, Northern Ireland
How can you combine these keywords together to search? You can combine keywords together using "operators" (linking words). The most common are AND and OR: Example: Bollywood AND film returns Web pages containing both words; film OR cinema returns Web pages containing either the word film or cinema. N.B. Phrase searching usually requires quotes, but worth checking the Help page of the search tool you are using to be sure; case is important for your operators - they will be ignored otherwise!
Search! Try out your search phrases in a search tool, remembering to make a note of any useful websites you find. If you don't find the information you need quickly, try using different keywords and combinations of search terms.
Google: Advanced Search Tips a quick guide to getting the best from this world-famous search engine
Search Engine Watch: Web Searching Tips some interesting links to other guides and sites that can help improve your Internet searching.
Top of Form 1
Not everything you read on the Internet is true or relevant
There's so much material on the Internet that finding the right information can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. A lot of the information available will be irrelevant and not be of the calibre you require.
Why does the quality and relevance of information vary so much? Think about it...
anyone can put something on the Internet - an amateur or an expert
a website can be hosted anywhere in the world but its information may only be relevant to a specific place - information concerning Brazil may not be of relevance to someone in Newcastle
they can say anything they like - be it true or false
and leave it there as long as they like - even if it goes out of date
or change it without warning - perhaps even remove it completely
Think about how the Internet compares with a library.
A book on a library shelf has been checked at least three times by different people:
the author checked their work
the editor has double-checked it
the publisher decided it was good enough to publish
it may have been reviewed
a librarian selected the book for the library
Information on the Internet has not always been checked.
Top of Form 1
It's up to you to judge what is trustworthy!
Learn to make good decisions about the relevance and quality of information on the Internet.
Remember, your Google search results might list:
Official governmental information next to chat rooms full of gossip!
encyclopaedias next to comic strips!
broadsheet newspapers next to underground fanzines!
The Royal Television Society website next to the website of a school student!
Examine the evidence Ask questions Consider the motives of people providing information Do not trust the information until you have found a good reason to do so
Top of Form 1
When looking at a website ask yourself the "three Ws":
Who?
Where?
When?
WHO?
Top of Form 1
Think about who is providing the information
Remember, anyone can say anything they like on the Internet.
Ask yourself:
Who has written the information?
Who has published it?
Are they a trustworthy source of information?
Are they trying to persuade me / sell me something / inform or misinform me?
Useful Evidence
You can get clues to help you answer these questions by exploring the site. Look out for:
The author's name
The name of the organisation publishing the information
The About Us section
The Contact Details (address / email)
The URL (more on this later in this section)
JUDGE WHERE
If you thought you were looking at a site offering work to newly qualified journalists in the UK and saw it was based in the Belgium would you be suspicious?
JUDGE WHEN
If you were looking for details of a printing and publishing course would you want information from ten years ago or from last year?
URL stands for "Uniform Resource Locator" and is the Web address of the page you are accessing. You'll usually see one at the top of your browser when you have a Web page open. They look something like this: http://www.intute.ac.uk/news/index.html
What can a URL tell us?
URLs may look tricky to unravel, but the best way to work out "who" and "where" is to break down the URL into its component parts. Let's look at the following Web address in detail: http://www.intute.ac.uk/news/index.html
URL
What's this?
Tell me more...
http://
Transfer Protocol
The first part of the URL is called the protocol. It tells your browser how to deal with the file that it is about to open. The most common you will see is HTTP, or Hypertext Transfer Protocol.
www.intute
Server Name
This refers to the computer (or server) where the Web pages or files you want to view are hosted. It usually contains the name of the organisation responsible for the site; in this case, "intute" (representing Intute).
ac
Top Level Domain/Organisational Code
This tells you something about the type of organisation responsible for the site (see below for more information).
uk
Country Code
This tells you in which country the site is hosted (find out more below).
news
Directory
This is a specific folder of information on the server (although it's not always given). There can be any number of these in a URL, indicated by "/" characters.
index.html
File Name / File Type
This is the file you are, or will be viewing. In this case, .html is the file extension. This can change depending on the type of file: eg .mov is a video file; .doc is a document; .gif is an image.
More clues: looking at organisational codes
You can often find out more about the nature of the organisation that owns the server from the organisation code. For example:
.ac, .edu academic or educational servers
.co, .com commercial servers
.gov government servers
.org non-governmental, non-profit making organisations
Note that different countries can have different codes for the same type of organisation. For example, a university server may have a .ac code in the UK (ac is short for "academic") but a .edu code in the USA (edu is short for "educational").
Top of Form 1
More clues: looking at country codes
You can sometimes find out more information about the country in which the server is based from the country code. For example:
.au Australia
.ca Canada
.de Germany
.fr France
.uk United kingdom
Note however, that a country code will not always be included in a URL. Many American sites for example, will not have the country code (.us) in their URL.
Warning!
URLs can sometimes mislead. For example, the URL: http://gatt.org/ could plausibly be the address of an organisation promoting the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, i.e. the World Trade Organisation. The site itself looks very much like the official site of the WTO, but in fact it is a satirical site by a group of activists, who simply bought the domain with a credit card. Hence URLs are useful as a guide, but they are not a definitive authority on the source of information.
†
PRIMARY
SECONDARY
TERTIARY
DEFINITIONS
Sources that contain raw, original, un-interpreted and unevaluated information
Sources that digest, analyze, evaluate and interpret the information contained within primary sources. They tend to be argumentative.
Sources that compile, analyze, and digest secondary sources. They tend to be factual.
Examples; Primary
Autobiography, Correspondence, Interview, Poetry/Song, Personal Narrative, Diaries
Secondary;
Biography, Criticism & Interpretation, History, Law & Legislation, Psychological, Political or Religious aspects, Public Opinion, Reports
Tertiary;
Bibliography, Chronology, Classification, Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, Hand books, Guide books, Indexes, Statistics, Tables, Directories
NOTES; This info came from really useful website; http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/
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