5 December 2006...Evaluating credible sources

Today was not as exciting as yesterday...no time to get lost on the portal! we took a fun quiz, though, about evaluating sources, and lauren and i were definitely fooled by the one about the pregnant man. WOW was that scary. Also, this is worthy of note, Brittany didn't know when the internet was invented. Then I told her Al Gore invented the internet. She totally believed me. So I Wikied it and it said the internet was invented for practical use in 1993. I wonder if that is a credible source.

So, following all of the rules of this assignment, I googled Pablo Neruda. I must be honest, using GOOGLE for a RESEARCH project felt almost sacriligious, as I've been so well trained NOT to google. So, with my evaluative handout in hand, I applied myself to http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/279, the eighth site that google found.

1. Author- WHO IS THE AUTHOR?
Well, it looks like the author of this site is the poets.org people...the people from the Academy of American Poets. When I clicked on "ABOUT US" and then "WHO ARE WE?" I learned that the people who run the website are all poets or authors who have been published themselves or work(ed) in the publishing industry. Many of them have BAs in literature and writing and stuff like. Seems like they're poetry experts.

2. Audience- WHO IS THIS SITE WRITTEN FOR?
Hmmm....the site isn't exactly written at a level that is inscrutable, so I'm assuming that it's written for poetry enthusiasts, or more likely the general public since poetry enthusiasts seem to be a dying breed. It's written for people curious about Pablo Neruda and who want to know more about his general background and history.

3. Scholarship- IS THIS SCHOLARLY MATERIAL?
It seems scholarly enough. It's pretty in-depth and it's written by some pretty scholarly people.

4. Bias- WHAT IS THE AUTHOR'S POINT OF VIEW?
This article's only bias is that toward a love of poetry. It's essentially just basic facts, presented in a pretty flat, unbiased manor.

5. Currency- IS THIS INFORMATION CURRENT?
I couldn't find an exact update date for this site, but I'd assume it is pretty current since they have an entire staff team dedicated to production and maintenance. Also, Neruda died in 1973, so there isn't that much new info out there about him. However, it does include his posthumously published collections on the list of works by Neruda.

6. Links- WHERE DO THE LINKS TAKE YOU?
The links provided were few in number, but excellent in quality. The sites I was linked to provided a lot of really useful info about many different aspects of Neruda's life and career, and they seemed equally as concise as this one.

FINAL ANALYSIS:
I think this site is super credible and in-depth, and could be really helpful for my project. The site is very well produced and seems dependable enough, not to mention run by a reliable, established organization. Thumbs up from me.