Tips to using the Internet

 To be an efficient searcher and to increase your chances of relevant hits you need to make sure you have:

 Tip 1 

 A research QUESTION – have a clear idea of what you are looking for.  You will need to spend some time thinking, perhaps brainstorm some possible search criteria so that you can find …

 A variety of relevant KEYWORDS.  These are words or phrases that describes your topic.  When searching on the internet you need to try different keywords and different combinations to get the best information. 

·        Often keywords can be found in your research question.

·        You  may also need to use synonyms (words that have similar meanings) or find related words from the index or table of content in books.

·        Correct spelling is important.

 Tip 2

 ·        Use phrase marks to narrow your search.  For example if you are interested in information about global warming  put quotation marks the phrase – “global warming” and you are telling the search engine to give you pages where the terms appear in exactly this order rather than every page containing the word global and warming.

 ·        Combining your search words with some general keywords can improve your searches.  For example you could use:

Facts

Information

FAQ ( Frequently Asked Questions)

Statistics  

Biography

History

 Tip 3

 A variety of SYMBOLS can be useful in obtaining relevant hits:

         Wildcards – this is when you use an asterisk * to ensure you are searching for all possible forms of a word.  Comput* means that you are searching for all possible forms of a word – compute, computer, computers, computing, computerize, computerized etc

·        Use Control-f to quickly find what you are looking for on a Web page.  For example you have found a site that looks promising but have to scroll through a lot of text to find the information you need.  Use Control-f to quickly find the exact location of the word or phrase.

·        The plus + and minus - symbols can be helpful.  Imagine that you wanted to find information about how the French flag was designed.  If you only used the search keyword flags you would probably get too many off-target results.  Instead try searching for all the words you know must appear on the type of page you’re looking for:

                                    French +flag +history +design

·            An example of when the minus – sign could be useful is if you were looking       for information on the humpback whale in the North Atlantic Ocean.  To narrow your search you could type:

                        “Humpback whale” + “North Atlantic” –Pacific   

·        Adding +K12 to your search terms limits your hits to information that is relevant for school students

Remember the key to effective searching is practice! practice! practice1