Evaluation Criterion
ASK YOURSELF:
- Is the author an authority or expert?
- Is evidence used to support facts?
- Do you think the information is correct?
- What is the author's agenda?
- Is the website selling products?
How Do I Evaluate Websites?
Start with... the ABOUT section of any webpage lists the website's stated mission, purpose or information on the author(s). Here is a good example of a website with an informative ABOUT section:
- NASD: National Association of Schools of Dance. About describes the organization, its purpose, philosophy, services, and more.
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Then, look... AUTHORS:
- All quality websites will list their author(s). The author can be a person, a group of people, organization, company, or government agency.
- Websites with no author are anonymous. Information from an anonymous website should not be used in research.
- Company websites are advertisements and their information should be treated as such.
- Websites that review movies, theatre, music, & dance performances, are generally simply selling tickets.
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IN CONCLUSION: Become a snob when you do research on the Internet. Carefully evaluate any website and use information that is college-level, identify any bias that the website might have, look for the credentials of the author(s), and do not include in your research any suspect or low-quality websites.
Dance Web Sites
American Ballroom Companion: Dance Instruction Manuals 1490-1920 Full text copies of over 200 dance manuals. From the Library of Congress.
BalletCompanies.com Links to 1,800+ ballet and dance companies all over the world.
Copyright of Choreographic Works Overview of legal history of copyrighting choreographic works in terms understandable to non-lawyers. Article by Julie Van Camp, Professor of Philosophy, CSULB, 1994.
Dance Heritage Collection a national non-profit cooperative group of institutions with significant collections of historical dance materials.