The Practice of Social Research

Chapter Seventeen.  Reading and Writing Social Research


Using the Internet Wisely
    Some Useful Web Sites
    Searching the Web
    Evaluating the Quality of Internet Materials
    Citing Internet Material


In many respects the internet and world wide web represent one of the most exciting developments for social researchers in recent years.  At the same time, it can be detrimental to inquiry.  The web contains a vast mass of information, and a great deal of it simply inaccurate, either by the intention of bias or as a consequence of sloppy procedures.  As such, the web represents a huge challenge for a new social researcher with integrity.

This section of the chapter will provide you with a number of useful and basically trustworthy web sites that contain social research data of various types.

Specially attention is focused on the use of search engines as tools of inquiry, and I've given you some tips on how to evaluate the quality of what you find.

Finally, I suggested how to cite internet materials in your bibliography.  You should realize that scholars are still experimenting with different citation formats, but I've offered some beginnings for you.