Rothenberg Response

In Rothenberg’s article “How the Web Destroys the Quality of Students’ Research Papers,” Rothenberg discusses how the emergence of the web has affected his students. The article is clearly dated, as the author is frequently mentions how the use of the Internet in term papers is changing and emerging. Rothenberg clearly dislikes the use of the Internet for research papers because he does not trust it as a reliable source. The problem, however, is that Rothenberg underestimates the ways in which people can use the Internet to narrow down a search and eliminate the problems that emerge with the web. The Internet can be a valuable resource because so many sources are readily available online. If one utilizes the Internet properly and understands how to properly search through the web, it can produce many sources that may not be discovered in a library. Rothenberg’s article demonstrates a simple lack of understanding about how to properly use the Internet, and underestimates the validity of the web because of this misunderstanding.