How do you evaluate information on the Internet?

When researching information, the Internet can be both useful and dangerous. You must evaluate the articles and sites that you come across. First, you must look at the authority. This is the background and knowledge of the author. The author of the information must have a relevant history. A good resource will tell you who the author is and their occupation. With this information you can determine an estimate of their level of knowledge. Second, you determine the reliability. The reliability is the references provided that the author gathered their information. You should be able to find the sources that the author uses from their citation. Finally, you check the relevance. Usually at the bottom of the page or at the beginning of the article, there will be a date of when the article was written. The earlier is always better; however, depending on the topic an older article can still be relevant.