Contextualized Online
Search and Research
Skills
On this lesson, we will learn how to
evaluate website’’ credibility and use
keywords to specify our search term.
Tips on Improving
Search and
Research Skills
Online search and research are more than
just ‘‘Googling’’––typing a word in Google
and then clicking the search button. It is a
skill that every Internet user should know to
do smart searching and this starts with
improving search and research skills to get
better results.
Here are the things that you need to
know to improve your online search
and research skills. This will guide
you to obtain the most relevant
information that you need.
1. When searching online, narrow your
topic. Identify the key concepts or
important ideas. Assuming that you
would like to search for the answer to
this question:
“What precautionary measures should you
observe when you are loggedin in a
public computer?”
Do not type the whole question in the
search box. Typing the whole question
often leads to a large number of and
From the question, the keywords are:
precautionary measures, observed,
logged-in, public computer.
Keywords are terms that are used in by most
search engines to find related documents.
2. Put the word ““AND””between
each keyword to create a search
string.
You may type the following in
the search box:
Precautionary computermeasures
AND observe AND logged-in AND
You will notice a decrease in search results as shown below.
3. Identify synonyms of the key words. Not all databases or articles use
the
same words to describe a topic. Group similar words together by
using the
word “OR” for a quick and relevant search.
In the case of our example: the synonyms of some of the keywords
are:
Precautionary measures – preventive measures
Observe – pay attention to Logged-in – signed-in
You may type the following in the search box:
Precautionary measures OR preventive measures AND observe OR pay
This gives you another set of search results:
4. Review the first pages
returned. If these are not
helpful, change your
keywords for a better
description.
In this case you may remove the
phrase ““ay attention to””and
then type the following in the
search box:
Precautionary measures OR
preventive measures AND observe
AND logged-in or signed-in AND
6. Use the minus (-) sign for a
more specific search. If you want
to exclude
a word from your search, place a
minus sign just before (without
any space)
the word you want to exclude.
Example: public computers -
personal
7. Use wildcards for a broader
search. Wildcard characters (*)
8. Use quotation marks to find phrases
or names. Enclose the phrase or
names that you want to search in
quotation marks. Example: ““recautionary
measures"
9. Use several search engines. Search
engines are programs that look for
documents based from specified keywords
and return these documents where
the keywords were found. Major search
engines include Google, Yahoo (which
Evaluating
Websites
To help you evaluate the website’’
credibility, here are the questions that
you need to answer:
1 Who wrote the article?
Check if the author’’ credentials or affiliations are listed so you can
tell whether or not the author is qualified to write the topic. Check
also the publisher of the article if it is a reliable publisher. Make sure
that the author provides e-mail or a contact address/phone number.
2. What is the purpose of the document and why was it produced?
It is also important to check the document’’ purpose and why it was
produced. The document should provide accurate information and
must be objective in presenting it. Some websites produce documents
for the purpose of motivating users to buy products. If this is the case,
information might be biased. However, bias is not necessarily bad but
you need to investigate the author or connections.
4. When was the document published and
updated?
The document should be regularly updated.
As to the freshness of the date, it depends on
the information needed. For some topics you
want current information. For others, you
want information near the time it became
known. The links should also be up-to-date.
There should be no dead links.
Thank you
very much!
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