Can I use websites in my assignments?
There is not a single answer to this question. It depends on the quality of the website, and the information it contains, and on the requirements of your assignment.
Whilst there are many authoritative and reliable sources available for free on the internet, there are also many poorer-quality sources. You should be evaluating all of the information you use in your assignments, but this is particularly important for websites.
This page will give you some resources to help you get started with searching and evaluating websites. If you need any further guidance, please contact your local Library/LRC team or academic tutors in the first instance.
Searching Google Effectively
If you are looking for information through Google, there are advanced search techniques which can help you get to the information you need more quickly. These can also help you to find more reliable information. Click the tabs to look at some of the most useful commands for researching using Google.
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Top Google Search TipsA list of the most useful search techniques you can use in Google.
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Refine Web SearchesThis is Google's own guide to advanced search techniques. It doesn't include everything, but is a nice quick-reference guide.
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Selected Google CommandsA list of commands you can use in Google.
You can ask Google to search individual websites or groups of websites sharing a domain. To do this, type site: followed by the web address or domain without any spaces. For example:
- site:bbc.co.uk would search the BBC website
- site:gov.uk would search UK government websites
- site:ac.uk would search UK university websites
You can combine this with file type searching. For example, if you search for site:gov.uk filetype:pdf you may be able to find UK government reports.
Google can search for documents that are available online based on their file format. To do this, type filetype: followed by the file format with no spaces. For example:
- filetype:pdf will search for PDF documents
- filetype:pptx will search for PowerPoint presentations
- filetype:docx will search for Word documents
- filetype:xlsx will search for Excel spreadsheets
Note: older files created using Microsoft Office do not include the 'x' at the end (e.g. doc instead of docx). You will need to search for these separately.
You can combine this with domain searching. For example, if you search for filetype:pptx site:ac.uk you may be able to find lecture slides from UK universities.
What about Wikipedia?
You should not use Wikipedia as a reference for academic assignments. This is because anyone can edit Wikipedia (you can try this yourself - most Wikipedia articles have an 'edit' link next to every section) and the articles are changing all the time; this means that there is no guarantee that the information is reliable or authoritative (although it often is).
If you are researching a new topic which you know nothing about, however, Wikipedia usually represents an easy-to-read summary of the subject. After this introduction, you should then use academic sources to go more in depth. You may also wish to check the references at the bottom of the Wikipedia article, but remember that you will need to evaluate these sources too.
The CRAAP Test
When evaluating sources of information, there are lots of factors to consider. The CRAAP Test is one quick check you can perform to determine whether a resource is appropriate to use in your assignment.
The CRAAP Test was created by librarians at California State University. For more information, see their CRAAP Test guide (PDF).
Alternatives to Google
Did you know that Google tracks your search history and changes the results it gives you based on what it thinks you want to see? Fortunately, Google is not the only search engine out there. So whether you're struggling to make Google give you what you want, or you have concerns about Google's respect for your privacy, you may wish to try out these alternatives:
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BingBing is Microsoft's search engine. You may find that it gives you very different results to Google.
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DuckDuckGoWorried about privacy? DuckDuckGo doesn't track or save your search history.
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StartPageLike Google but don't like being tracked? StartPage searches Google for you, keeping you anonymous.
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DogpileDogpile searches multiple search engines at once, including Google and Yahoo, and brings back the most relevant results from all of them.