hartford-hwp.com and marxists.org

brianthebard

http://www.hartford-hwp.com/ www.marxists.org
Has anyone heard of or used these website before for essays? I've just come across them tonight and they seem fairly legit, but doesn't seem to be connected to any larger organisation or university so I wonder if it would be ok to use in an essay? (first major essay back so I want to do this right!) Thanks.

Tom Dunne

brianthebard wrote: »

http://www.hartford-hwp.com/ www.marxists.org
Has anyone heard of or used these website before for essays? I've just come across them tonight and they seem fairly legit, but doesn't seem to be connected to any larger organisation or university so I wonder if it would be ok to use in an essay? (first major essay back so I want to do this right!) Thanks.

What do you mean use them for essays?

As a reference?

If so, I would be very sceptical. I always check sources of essays and if these two were quoted, I would be very suspicious.

Referencing reputable sources is the only way, in my opinion.

brianthebard

yes as a reference or in the bibliography. Suspicious of what though? Like I know the marxists.org looks overtly political, but that's kind of the point, and I don't think there could be any tampering with the original documents because there aren't any right wing views being expressed, its just the originals (marxists don't believe in property rights!).
Someone mentioned a Sartre essay that they had read in French, so when I told the lecturer about the English version on marxists he sent a link around to everyone so they could read it. Doesn't necessarily mean it could be used in an essay but seems to suggest they were ok with the source. I don't know anything about the hartford site but again I can't see anything negative either. What would you be suspicious of Tom?
Oh just found their policy's page, will read that and see if there's anything worrying.
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/10/040.html

reregholdsworth

The sources themselves look fine to me. However the categories are quite unwieldy and not how I would organise material on world history.

Red Alert

I'd imagine you'd want to see how well rigorously the facts any of the papers there are checked

brianthebard

Eh wha? That ^^, sense, make not too good?

fcussen

Marxists.org is one of the best scholarly sites on the internet. The only thing I'll say against it is that someone rewrote an article I put on wikipedia without seeming to know anything about the topic and they accepted it: http://www.marxists.org/glossary/people/v/o.htm#voloshinov-valentin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentin_Voloshinov

Tom Dunne

fcussen wrote: »

Marxists.org is one of the best scholarly sites on the internet. The only thing I'll say against it is that someone rewrote an article I put on wikipedia without seeming to know anything about the topic and they accepted it:

Bingo.

There you go. Proof if ever there was. Who vets the information? Is it peer-reviewed? Is it just any old nonsense trawled from other internet sites? (which appears to be the case). Are they affiliated to any organisation/university/political party? Who pays for the sites?

I should point out that I am in the IT end of academia, not Arts/Political Science/Sociology, but I still think my points stand. I am not saying disregard it totally, I am invoking my standard mantra of "don't believe everything you read on the internet".

You should be asking the questions I am asking.

brianthebard

Well those are the questions I'm asking to see if it can be used. The piece fcussen referred to is a simple introduction, I'm not sure if it was copied from wiki (it doesn't seem to be imo) but in any case as a means of laying down the simple facts both articles would be similar. Its the documents from the writers themselves that I'm interested in.
Its a volunteer organisation (both sites are afaik) that are politically independent. I will probably email the head of the course with the links and see what he thinks tomorrow just to be sure but I just wanted to get some opinions first off.

Esmereldina

The Marxist site looks fine to me - all it is actual documents/writings from various thinkers so unless they are making them up (which I would think highly unlikely) then they are fine to use. I looked up Gramsci, who I know about, and and all the writings were his own actual writings (that I've read before so I know this!). They also gave printed sources for all the writings so that they are traceable... this makes them seem pretty legit too. I would say go for it...

brianthebard

Cheers. I actually have another source problem but I'm going to ask one of the lecturers about it tomorrow. My copy of Marx is from the USSR, printed 1950. I can't tell if anything in it has been changed but if any regime was going to censor a book....On the other hand its in English so I don't know. Hopefully it can be used.