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Conducting Online Research

Effective Online Research Strategies

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Overview

  • For effective online research:
      • - know available search tools
      • - understand how tools work
      • - know how to use tools
      • - evaluate results found with tools

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Online Research

  • Characteristics of the Internet:
    1. large volumes of information
    2. convenient
    3. doesn’t contain all information
    4. potentially frustrating

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Web versus Print: Web

Web

    • anyone with web access can publish
    • author/affiliations and qualifications may be unclear
    • may not clearly identify external information
    • may be biased/misleading
    • publication info may not be listed

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Web versus Print: Print

Print

    • extensive publication process
    • clearly indicates author/affiliations
    • clearly marks outside sources/quotations
    • bias exists, but is reviewed
    • only qualified manuscripts accepted for publication
    • publication info clearly listed

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Visible Web versus Invisible Web

  • Visible Web:�content can be found using freely accessible search engines such as Google��
  • Invisible Web:�content not found by general search engines

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Invisible Web vs. Visible Web: Practice

  1. Write a topic on a piece of paper
  2. Exchange it with a partner
  3. Run one search in a general search engine such as Google
  4. Run another search using a library research tool, such as JSTOR, EBSCOHOST, or Megasearch
  5. Discuss the kinds of results each search turned up

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Web Search Tools

  • Search Engines
      • - list results based on entered keywords
  • Web Directories
      • - offer categories for users to choose from
  • Metasearch Engines
      • - combine results from multiple search engines

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Search Engine Results

  • Based on:
      • - site’s amount of information
      • - number of linking sites
      • - number of people who choose a link
      • - length of time in search engine database
      • - code of the site

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Search Engine Results

  • Different search engines might return different results in a different order
  • Can include results from paying advertisers:

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Search Engine Results: Practice

  1. Write a search topic on a piece of paper
  2. Exchange the piece of paper with a partner
  3. Enter the search term into three different search engines.
  4. Discuss the difference in results with your partner

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Conducting a Search

    • Consider:
      • - keywords that apply
      • - what kinds of information you need
      • - multiple angles
      • - keep notes

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Using Search Terms

  • Do multiple searches
  • Try keyword variations
      • - e.g. try “dining hall,” “cafeteria,” and “campus food service”
  • Be specific as you learn more
      • - e.g. change “dining hall” to “Midwest university dining hall”
  • Boolean Operators: words added to a search to make it more specific

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Defining a Search: Boolean Operators

  • AND finds pages with all of the search terms used
      • - e.g. “dining hall” AND “student workers”
  • OR- finds pages with at least one of the search terms
      • - e.g. “dining hall” OR “cafeteria” OR “campus food service”
  • NOT - excludes pages that include the second term
      • - e.g. Henry VII NOT Shakespeare

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Defining a Search: Quotation Marks

  • Return pages with exact matches
    • enter dining hall
      • Get: “As I was dining, I heard a noise coming from the hall
    • enter “dining hall”
      • Get: Dining hall food quality is assessed in this paper.”

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Search Terms: Practice

  1. Write a general search term on a piece of paper
  2. Exchange it with a partner
  3. Using the same search engine for the whole activity, run searches using:
    1. the original term
    2. synonyms of the term
    3. Boolean operators
  4. Discuss with your partner how the results of each search were different

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Evaluating Search Results

  • Some results won’t be helpful
    • wrong topic
    • not enough information
    • incorrect or outdated information
    • shallow or untrustworthy source
    • wrong tone for your project (e.g. an opinionated article when you need a basic overview)

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Evaluating Search Results

  • Have a clear idea of type of content needed
    • general overview
    • different viewpoints in a debate
    • in-depth explorations of a topic with numbers and statistics

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Evaluating Search Results

  • No precise formula
  • Find out:
    • purpose
    • who is responsible
    • when last updated
    • whether information is corroborated in other places

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Some Clues to Determine a Site’s Purpose

  • Tone and language used
  • Assumptions/Generalizations
  • Commercial/Non-commercial
  • Advocating a particular opinion
  • Copyright notice
  • Links/Sources cited

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Evaluating Search Results

  • Domain name extensions
    • anyone can register .com, .net, .org domain names
    • not a great way to tell whether a source is “credible”
    • .edu and .gov can only be used by educational institutions and governmental institutions
      • still not necessarily reliable

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Evaluating Search Results: Visuals

  • Good design NOT an indicator of reliable information
  • Bad design not an indicator of unreliable information
    • might be more likely to indicate an outdated website or one run by an individual

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Wikipedia Articles

  • Often one of the first results listed
  • “Web versus Print” slides apply
  • Check for instructors’ policies
  • Can be useful for:
    • getting an overview
    • generating new ideas
    • pointing to other sources

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Evaluating Sources: Using Wikipedia

  • Example of sources and further reading in the Wikipedia Henry VIII article:

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Resources for Online Research

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For More Information

  • Contact the Purdue Writing Lab:
    • Drop In: Heavilon 226
    • Call: 765-494-3723
    • Email: owl@owl.english.purdue.edu
    • On the web: http://owl.english.purdue.edu

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The End