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Caveat Lector
Caveat Lector ("Let the reader beware!")
- The sites whose links I have posted here are by serious scholars and teachers whose work I know and respect. But a word of caution about web sites.
- Consider the fact that, though you know and respect someone, that does not mean you necessarily think everything he or she thinks is true. You must always form your own judgments; being able to do this, after all, is a large part of what getting an education is about. The World Wide Web can be a wonderful resource, as well as very convenient one. But do not turn off your brain when you use it.
- Consider something else. Do you believe everything you read in a printed book? If you answer "yes," why? Though university presses submit manuscripts to peer review before publishing them, almost anyone can get a book published, somewhere. And absolutely anyone can put up a web page--and say on it whatever she or he chooses. There are sites by people who really know what they are talking about; there are other sites by knowledgeable people who nevertheless threw something together in a hurry; and there are many by enthusiastic amateurs who know how to make a web page but have no particular expertise about the subjects they discuss.
- Just because the Web offers statements which are easy to get at does not mean the Web gives you accurate, reliable information. Sometimes what you get is sloppy, half-baked, uninformed crap. Once you use it, it becomes YOUR responsibility, and if it's crap it becomes YOUR crap. "Caveat lector"--reader beware. You always need to be concerned about the quality of the information
you take. And about who posted it and when.
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