The internet can be a dependable source to help you create your essay, if you use it correctly. Your school’s online library is a wonderful starting place to search textbook information, scholarly and popular articles, academic journals and newspaper stories. Used properly your school web reserves can be a great tool offering a wealth of academically appropriate references (and save you a trip to the actual library)!

If more general web surfing is what you prefer, there is really no shortage of websites available. Word of caution, however – be sure that the sites you choose to reference are credible. The information should come from well-informed and trustworthy sources. This means taking a few seconds to see who is behind the site. Is it a person, a company, an association, a politician? For instance, if you have a paper discussing the effects of excessive TV watching on kids there is a big difference between a website created by a psychologist and one created by a kids TV network. Look for conflicts of interest. To find out more about the site author(s), refer to the “About Us” section of the site.

Basically, you want sites that can offer an authoritative contribution to the topic at hand. Consider the website extension as well. This is the .com, .net, or .org that follows the name of the site. Look for .gov and .edu site extensions in particular. These are issued to actual government and registered educational organizations. Such sites are considered trustworthy because they offer valid, up to date information. Not to say that .coms and other sites are not reliable, but you may need to do more digging to verify whether the information is accurate and worthy to be included in your paper. Don’t cut corners! Make sure that you do sound research…it is the only true way to ensure a top notch essay or research paper. Anyone who double checks the citations on your Works Cited page should find nothing but accurate, highly credible sources.