In this unit you will learn how to find, collect and interpret information from the World Wide Web.

Before you start looking for information, you need to know why it has been written. There are six different purposes of information:

1. to recount
   (when you re-tell events)
2. to report
   (when you describe the way things are)
3. to instruct
   (when you describe or instruct how something is done)
4. to explain
   (when you explain a process or how something works)
5. to persuade
   (when you argue a point of view, or to attempt to convince the reader)
6. to discuss
   (when you present arguments and information from different viewpoints)

If you were going to collect a great deal of information, think about how you would do it.

How you collect information depends on what information you are looking for.

For example, let's say that you want to know whether teenagers listen to more music than any other age range. Think about who you would ask. Would you only ask teenagers?

Let's say that you only asked teenagers and you found out that teenagers listened to music three hours per day, on average. You would not know whether 3 hours was more, or less, than what adults listened to per day. So the answer is that you would need to ask people across every age range.

If you did another survey on teenagers to find out what type of music was the most popular, think about where you would ask teenagers. Would you ask teenagers at a rock concert?

Let's say that you only asked teenagers at a rock concert and found out that rock music was easily the most popular. Of course, rock music fans go to rock music concerts so you cannot say that all teenagers like rock music. A better place to ask teenagers would be in your school.

When you know who to ask and where to ask, you need to make the questionnaire. However, if we ask the wrong questions, we might get the wrong answers.

Let's look at some troublesome questions:

• Are DVDs better than video cassettes?
  Problem: This question is vague. I might think that video cassettes are better because they have been around for longer than DVDs.
  Solution: Do DVDs have better picture quality than video cassettes? Now there should be no confusion.
• Do DVDs have better picture quality than video cassettes? Agree or Disagree.
  Problem: This is not an agree or disagree question. You could be agreeing that yes they do have better picture quality, or no they do not have better picture quality.
  Solution: Possible answers should be Yes, No and don't know.