Speech - COMM101

Evaluating online sources

The following video discusses the idea of lateral reading, or moving horizontally off of a webpage onto other webpages (instead of moving vertically up and down the page), to learn more about the publisher or source. This technique can help you determine whether a page is trustworthy and appropriate for research.

Practice lateral reading

Please evaluate the two websites below, using any strategy you chose. Try to incorporate lateral reading. Which is the more reliable source and why?

Google trick for limiting web sources

Limit your search to a specific website or domain by using the site: technique. Type site: then the name of your website or domain, with no space after the colon. Then put a space and type your search term(s).

• Search within a single website = site:nba.com Lebron James
• Search within a domain = site:.edu "standardized testing"