{"id":179,"date":"2017-07-20T16:30:25","date_gmt":"2017-07-20T16:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/chapter\/why-is-research-important\/"},"modified":"2017-07-20T16:30:25","modified_gmt":"2017-07-20T16:30:25","slug":"why-is-research-important","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-styleguide2\/chapter\/why-is-research-important\/","title":{"raw":"Why Is Research Important?","rendered":"Why Is Research Important?"},"content":{"raw":"

The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus<\/h2>\n\"Vintage-style\nA few years ago a little-known animal species suddenly made headlines. \u00a0The charming but elusive\u00a0Tree Octopus became the focal point of internet scrutiny.\n\nIf you've never heard of the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus, take a few minutes to learn more about it on this website, devoted to saving the endangered species<\/a>.\n\nYou can also watch this brief video for more about the creatures:\n\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/SU-yq_IJhtU\n

Source\u00a0Reliability<\/h2>\nIf you're starting to get the feeling that something's not quite right here, you're on the right track. \u00a0The Tree Octopus website is a hoax, although a beautifully done one. \u00a0There is no such creature, unfortunately.\n\nMany of us feel that \"digital natives\"--people who have grown up using the internet--are naturally\u00a0web-savvy. \u00a0However, a 2011 U.S. Department of Education study that used the Tree Octopus website as a focal point revealed that students who encountered this website completely fell for it. \u00a0According to an NBC news story\u00a0by Scott Beaulieu, \"In fact, not only did the students believe that the tree octopus was real, they actually refused to believe researchers when they told them the creature was fake.\"[footnote]http:\/\/www.nbcconnecticut.com\/news\/local\/An-Octopus-in-a-Tree-Seems-Real-115497484.html<\/a>[\/footnote]\n\nWhile this is a relatively harmless example of a joke\u00a0website, it helps to demonstrate that anyone can say anything they want on the internet. A good-looking website can be very convincing, regardless of what it says. \u00a0The more you research, the more you'll see that sometimes the least-professional-looking websites offer the most credible information, and the most-professional-looking websites can be full of biased, misleading, or outright wrong information.\n\n\"GraphicThere are no hard and fast rules when it comes to resource reliability. \u00a0Each new source has to be evaluated on its own merit, and this module will offer you a set of tools to help you do just that.\n\n\u00a0\n\nIn this module, you'll learn about\u00a0tips and techniques to enable you to find, analyze, integrate, and document sources in your research.\n","rendered":"

The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus<\/h2>\n

\"Vintage-style
\nA few years ago a little-known animal species suddenly made headlines. \u00a0The charming but elusive\u00a0Tree Octopus became the focal point of internet scrutiny.<\/p>\n

If you’ve never heard of the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus, take a few minutes to learn more about it on this website, devoted to saving the endangered species<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You can also watch this brief video for more about the creatures:<\/p>\n