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Keys to Successful Research Using the Internet

 

Step 1:  Narrow your topic and identify keywords

Step 2:  Determine your search strategy

o        Most search engines follow the same basic rules:

   

       Search Strategy    

  

     Explanation

 

      Examples

 

   Boolean operators

AND limits your search, requiring that both or all words appear

 

OR is used to include synonyms or related words

 

NOT eliminates possibilities that you suspect will cause problems

 

(some search engines use + and – for AND and NOT)

 

 

Vietnam AND protests AND

            students

 

 

car OR automobile

coronary OR heart

 

China NOT dishes

“Martin Luther” NOT king

 

 

 

   Phrases

 

Quotation marks glue two or more words together in the specific order you desire

 

 

“George Washington Carver”

“bed and breakfast”

 

  Nesting

 

Nesting allows you to create more complicated search statements combining Boolean operators using parantheses

 

(car OR automobile) AND Subaru

 

Step 3:  Use Online Databases to access reliable sources

In gathering research for your topic, you must use reputable sources from the Internet.  These online databases include newspapers, magazines, digests, journals, and excerpts from books.  To access these types of sources, follow these steps:

o        Start at Unami Library Online Databases web page: 

 http://www.cbsd.org/unami/library/onlinedatabases.htm

  

o        Determine which online database you would like to use:

§         Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center:  Topics are organized under key social issues.  Contains full text articles from the Opposing Viewpoints books that give both sides to an argument, articles from reference books, statistics, links to reliable web sites, primary documents, and magazine and newspaper articles.

§         Student Resource Center: Contains articles from reference books, magazine/newspaper articles, and  audio/video clips.

§         Bigchalk Library: Best results with a Boolean search, great for TV and radio transcripts as well as magazine and newspaper articles.

§         SIRS Knowledge Source: All full text results, some have pictures, access government publications such as Supreme Court Decisions, etc..

§         EBSCOhost: While EBSCOhost is more complicated to use than the others, it is a powerful database with access to about 2000 magazines and newspapers; therefore, don’t forget to give it a try.    To access EBSC0, you must enter the Access PA POWER Library.  Determine which databases you want to search.  I suggest that you always use “Masterfile Premier” and “ Newspaper Source.”   Read the descriptions of the other databases to determine if it is applicable to your topic.  Be careful to note if your result is a full text article before choosing to skim it.

 

 

Step 4:  Do a smart search on the world wide web if necessary;  however, understand that you will have to evaluate each site for reliability before you can use it.

o        Use the search engines available at: http://www.cbsd.org/unami/library/research%20sites.htm

 

The Internet can be a powerful research tool, but anyone can publish on the web so you must be careful to evaluate the reliability of the site. In addition, the internet has no “fact checkers” to determine the validity of information.

            Use the following criteria to evaluate each site:

bullet Criterion #1: AUTHORITY  Who wrote this information?  What are the author’s credentials?  Is contact information available for the author included in the web site? 
bullet Criterion #2:  ACCURACY Is the information on this site is factual?  Are the sources for the information clearly stated?  Are there editors and fact checkers?
bullet Criterion #3:  OBJECTIVITY  Is the information unbiased?  Is the information trying to sway the opinion of the audience?  Is the information free of advertising?
bullet Criterion # 4:  CURRENCY How current is the information? When was the site created?  When was it last updated?
bullet Criterion # 5: COVERAGE  Are the topics included explored in depth?  Is the purpose of this site clear and appropriate for your research?

 

o        Analyze the website’s  address to provide more clues of the website’s reliability: The URL or web address can provide you with some clues about the web sites validity.  A URL is comprised of:  prefix://rootaddress/subdirectory/file

¨   If little information is provided on the page you are on as to the purpose of the site, shorten the address to the “root address” to evaluate the home page of the site.  For example, you would shorten the  following website: http://www.ala.org/yalsa/booklists/bbya/2002top10best.html  to http://www.ala.org and look on the homepage for more detailed information on the purpose of the site and authority.

¨   The domain type also provides clues. 

Ø      More reliable domains include:

. gov = a government sponsored website

. edu = a university sponsored website

.mil = a military sponsored website

Ø      Evaluate more closely websites with the following domains:

.org = nonprofit organizations.  For these sites, go to the orginazation;s homepage ( the “root address) to evaluate bias before you choose to use it.

.com (commercial websites) or .net (internet resource) are the websites that require the most attention paid to evaluating the site by the criteria listed above.

 

Step 5:  Evaluate your results!

o        If your not happy with your results:

§         Try another combination of keywords

§         read the articles you have found for better keywords.  Hint:  You are looking for words that seem to be being used in more than one source.

§         Try your search on more than one database

 

In- Text Documentation:
A Guide for Using the Green Writing Research Papers Handbook Effectively
•First Step
–Prepare the bibliographic entries for the sources you used.
Most common sources used:
A book with a single author:  Page 30 An article from an online subscription
periodical database (Electric Library, EBSCOhost, etc….) :  Page 34
A Professional Web Site:  Page 35
Check your green book for the bibliographic formats for other types of sources ( pages 30-38)
Second Step- Make your Works Cited Page
•Once you have your resources in the correct bibliographic format, you must create a works cited page.
•The words “Works Cited” are typed one inch from the top of the page
•Arrange your bibliographic entries in alphabetical order by author’s last name.
If your entry does not start with an author,  you use the first word in the title.
  See page 29 in the green book for further
                      directions.
Sample Works Cited Page

Works Cited

Bennet Jr., Lerone.  “10 Biggest Lies About Black History.”Ebony  May 2001: 86+. EBSCOhost. Unami Middle School Library, Chalfont, PA.  17 October 2001.
Holzer, Harold, ed.  Abraham Lincoln- The Writer:  A Treasury of His Greatest Speeches and Letters. Honesdale: Boyds Mill Press, 2000.
“Lincoln Rallies New Yorkers Against Slavery.”  PBS Kids: Learning Adventures in Citizenship. 17 October 2001 <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/newyork/laic/
       episode2/topic8/ e2_t8_sl-lr.html>.
 
Writing your Paper:
What do you need to Cite?
•All Statistics
•All Direct Quotes
•Any information that is not common knowledge that was paraphrased by you
Common knowledge is defined as information you found in more than 3 sources.
•Any information that is controversial or questionable.
•Opinions from scholars and other individuals you consulted.
 

How to do parenthetical or in-text documentation

To  put it simply, after you write information that qualifies as needing to be cited, you tell the reader right away where you found the information. You do this by listing the author’s name and the page number of the source in parenthesis after the sentence in which the information was found. If no author is given, you give the first few words of the title of the article. Basically, you put in parenthesis the words that match the first words of your entry on the Works Cited page.

Sample:  Direct Quote
In June of 1858, Abraham Lincoln stated in his speech to the Republican Party convention, “I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free” ( Holzer 37).
                                                                         
         Sample: A paraphrased opinion
 
During his presidential campaign in 1860, Lincoln understood that it was important for him to win over America’s newspaper capital, New York City.  Lincoln was successful in winning their support because he managed to give each opposing faction a little bit of what they wanted.  For instance, for the abolitionists he promised that he would not allow slavery to spread into the West.  For the business men with interests in the South, he promised that slavery could remain in the South.  This strategy along with Mathew Brady’s photographs was widely covered by the newspapers and magazines raising Lincoln to celebrity status (“Lincoln”).
 

Help for In-Text Documentation in your green guide book

Examples of of In-text documentation format:

Pages 22- 29.

Guidelines for how much of your paper should be cited: page 18.

Basic rule- cited information accounts for 50% to 75% of a research paper.

Explanation of what purpose documentation serves in your paper: page 18.

 

Information for this page was written by Brian Hensel - Unami Science Dept

 

 

 

 

 

 

This web page was updated on 10/23/07 by Pamela Sime