Page 215 - Between One and Many The Art and Science of Public Speaking

182 Part 3 Putting Theory Into Practice

If the server is a commercial Internet service provider, such as geo cities
.com, aol.com, or angelfi re.com, this is another sign of a questionable
source. For most speeches, personal Web pages should be avoided.
• What is the type of domain? Government sites are usually .gov, .mil, or .us.
Educational sites are .edu. Nonprofi t organizations are .org. The domains
.com and .net are generally commercial. Look for the types of sites that are
most appropriate for your speech topic. Government and educational sites
are often the best place to begin for speeches on current events and issues.
• Who is the Web page’s sponsor? For example, the Web site for this text
(www.mhhe.com/brydon6) is published by McGraw-Hill Higher Educa-
tion. One can safely assume that this is a reliable source of information
about our text and its supporting materials. Look for pages sponsored by
reputable organizations that have a direct bearing on your speech topic.
You should be aware that a .org domain is no guarantee that a site is noncom-
mercial, and .edu is not a guarantee of scholarly content—for example, bju.edu
(Bob Jones University). Also, be alert to the fact that most university students can
put a personal Web page up under their university’s domain. Don’t rely entirely
upon the domain suffi x, but consider it a minor tool in your CRAAP toolbox.
There are various sites that can evaluate Web resources. For instance, the
Urban Legends Web site (http://snopes.com) is a terrifi c resource for determin-
ing the validity of commonly held ideas or theories. If you type in “miserable
failure” in the search box at Urban Legends, you will get a detailed account
of how this term became associated with the president. The Librarians’ Internet
Index (http://lii.org/) is also an excellent resource for locating reliable infor-
mation on the free Web. The LII performs a similar fi ltering function for the
Internet that librarians have traditionally provided for the patrons of “brick
and mortar” libraries. Their mission statement declares: “The mission of Librar-
ians’ Internet Index is to provide a well-organized point of access for reliable,
trustworthy, librarian-selected websites, serving California, the nation, and the
world.” 15

The Library

It’s common for us to meet students who have
never set foot in the library on campus—but
this doesn’t mean that they haven’t used the
university’s library resources. Today there are
really two types of libraries available to stu-
dents: the brick and mortar building; and the
virtual library, available 24/7 from the conve-
nience of a computer at home, on campus, or
in an Internet café.
Even so, we require our own students to
take a guided tour of the physical library. Some
valuable resources for speeches reside only on
the shelves of the library or in its special collec-
tions departments.
Today’s libraries use computer databases to enhance the
research process. Research for a public speaking class will of-
ten involve a trip to the campus library. The