1. Why do you think there is a need for researchers to know the different purposes of websites? Explain using examples of websites you often visit or those which you have encountered while researching on your research topic.
Understanding the nature of various websites enables the researcher to understand the purpose of the contents within that particular website. For an instance an Internet retailing platform will employ marketing strategy to attract consumers to make purchases and such nature is rather commercial. Thus, this source of information is more suitable for people who are learning or acquiring the skills to market their product. Whereas for researches who are inquiring into more scientific related topics, such as the topic on organ transplantation that I am going to conduct research upon, commercial websites are not appropriate as they do not provide relevant and in depth information, since that does not align with their purpose to sell. However, they will most probably offer you suggestions of books that might have the contents that you are looking for.
Moreover, through understanding the various natures of the websites, researchers can easily sieve out relevant information quickly and accurately. Furthermore, another advantage of understanding the purpose of the websites can facilitate the researcher to decide whether or not the content obtained from the various websites are reliable or not. For an instance, a commercial websites will most probably employ a more persuasive tone in writing while an educational website will most probably employ a more serious tone, while an advocacy website combines both tones to better influence people about the seriousness of their beliefs.
In conclusion to this section, understanding the different purposes of different websites will facilitate researchers to better manage the information obtained through the Internet. The Internet today contains different information and as a result, it is essential for the researcher to be able to sieve out relevant and appropriate information so to make accurate and reliable analysis and report.
2. Choose an advocacy website. Compare this advocacy website with the shopping website you had used for your E-shopping websites by using THREE differences.
Advocacy websites contains mainly their views, and as such, the website mostly contains information to support, justify and explain their cause. I visited an Advocacy website which supports leading a vegan lifestyle (http://www.peacefulprairie.org/advocacy.html) and it contains mainly their opinions on what is vegan and why people should lead a vegan lifestyle, so that they are able to influence people to adopt such lifestyle, almost similar to propaganda. In addition, the tone of writing used in the information is rather emotive and serious at the same time to effectively persuade people to adopt their view and change their lifestyle.
Moreover, the presentation of the advocacy website is done in a way to evoke readers’ emotion. The advocacy website I visited was promoting a vegan lifestyle to save animals, and as a result, the images, word fonts and colours are created in a less professional way to better evoke readers’ emotion. Furthermore, the style of writing differs from a E-shopping website I visited in the past, it was written in the first person’s perspective which is very useful for persuasion, while the E-shopping website was written in a third person’s perspective.
On the other hand, E-shopping websites does their presentation differently, apart from their contents, which primarily serves a commercial purpose. E-shopping websites are presented in a more professional way to market their products and they appeal and persuade buyers to buy through using clear and strategic words and presentation while advocacy websites are presented in a way to evoke readers’ emotion.
3. Explain the most meaningful lesson you had learnt from Practical 1&2.
Firstly, I learnt to evaluate the source of information I obtained through the internet by understanding the purposes of the website. This understanding is crucial because it determines whether or not the information obtained is reliable or not. Moreover, I felt that I will employ the internet as a research tool for future projects because I am more confident about the information obtained. In the past, I only used books as references for my projects, hence I felt that knowing about the information source better was the most meaningful lesson I learnt.
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