Abstract
People use the internet for newsgathering, conducting business, staying in touch with acquaintances and for general entertainment purposes. Because routine internet use is becoming more common as people get more comfortable going online to get information, it is important that researchers ask how it is that web users determine whether the information on a particular website is credible or not. Using rhetoric and theories of persuasion such as the Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion, the study looks at how internet users determine the credibility of information online. The goal of this thesis is to illustrate the important of maintaining an error-free website and that error as small as spelling mistakes will have a negative effect on the overall credibility of information on a website.