Question: Can I use blogs, interviews with people, or web sites for my bibliography?

Question: Can I use blogs, interviews with people, or web sites for my bibliography?

Answer:  Only if you have exhausted other sources of scholarly information found in printed (electronic or paper) sources.  The reason is this:  blogs, interviews, and web sites themselves don't necessarily contain vetted information.  Vetted information is information that has been verified publicly as knowledge.  The publication process is itself a vetting process, whereby information is reviewed and verified as useful to someone.  Blogs, list serves, and web sites can contain good information, but they often contain one person's opinions. They are best at providing best practices; processes that have been used and proven (sort of a vetting process) to be valid for a workplace.

That said, blogs, interviews, and web sites (such as the wikipedia site) are useful for you to find the conversation you need to tap in to.  For example, you might read someone's blog on documentation processes and come away with some important key words. Then you can use those keywords to search the tc.eserver.org site. 

Think levels.  Some sources are useful, but general and anecdotal; others represent principles of technical communication.

Bottom line:  You may use one or two of these kind of tgeneral sites, but, if you do, I want to see at least 5 other, more scholarly sites.

This page maintained by Thomas Barker thomas.barker@ttu.edu