How do I know if information I have found online is reliable? What are the things to look for when deciding on the quality of the information you have found? The following points may help:
- Who are the authors?
- Do you know anything about them?
- Do they introduce themselves?
- Are they part of a recognised educational institution or other organisation?
- Can you trace the origin of their web pages back to a home page with a clear mission statement?
- Do the authors present logical arguments ?
- Do they quote references that can be traced to other reputable organisations or individuals?
- How old is the material?
Use this list to start with, but as you gain more experience in web browsing you will develop your own skills in the critical analysis of web page information.
How do I indicate web references in assignments?
Keep track of resources you use so you can record them in your assignments. Software programs such as Endnote can help you with this if you have a lot to record. When you quote from a source, use the following method to refer to it:
Author. Title of document (in quotes). Title of the complete work if applicable (in italics). Full http address (URL) enclosed within angle brackets. Date of visit in brackets.
Example:
Macklin L, `Snow' 1996, <http://tmn.com/community/macklin/snow.htm>(24 March 1997)
Why can web pages take a long time to load?
The speed at which web pages are loaded is determined by:
- The speed of your modem.
- The Internet link provided by your Internet Service Provider.
- The amount of Internet "traffic" at the time.
- The size of the page you are loading.
You will wait longer if it has large graphics files (or sound/movie files). Be patient!
If you just require the text from the web pages and do not need any graphics you can set your browser to download text only by turning off the load images option.
How do I increase the viewing area on screen?
Make sure you have adjusted your browser's window size to take up the full screen. Maximise the screen by using your mouse to drag the edges/corners of the active window towards the side/bottom until the full screen is taken up. This also reduces the need for horizontal scrolling.
The viewing area can also be increased by turning off or hiding the browser's menu bars which take up extra space. In Netscape you can do this by choosing Options -> and deselect any of the Show items such as Show Toolbar. You will still have access to these functions from the drop down menus and can reselect them at any time.
If using Internet Explorer, choose View -> and deselect Toolbar/Status Bar. You can reselect them if you need to.
If you are reading a web page which has frames and wish to enlarge the viewing area of one of them, put the mouse cursor over the frame border and drag it to one side. The frame will reload and the text will flow out to fill the wider viewing area.
Do not resize the viewing area while a page is loading. It may cause a crash. This often happens when a sound file or animation file is trying to load. Also wait until the page has completely loaded before attempting any onscreen interactions.
What if the print size is too small?
If you are having difficulty reading the text on the screen, you can adjust the font display size in your browser's menu options. For example, in Netscape you would go to the Options menu -> General Preferences-> Fonts, choose font and change the size.
If you are using Internet Explorer, click the Font button in the Toolbar, or choose View -> Fonts -> and select the size.
What if the colours don't look right?
Normally the web pages you see are developed using complimentary text and background colours. Check to see if your browser has been set to use its own colour combinations. If so, you will need to adjust the settings to allow web pages to display their original colours.
In Netscape, do this with the same menu choices for changing the font size but choose colours instead and set to the default setting.
In Internet Explorer, choose View -> Options -> choose Colour and check the settings.
Sometimes (although not very common now) web developers use colours that will not appear on all computers so some may not be able to display particular colours correctly. There is nothing you can do!