Internet Research

INTERNET RESEARCH It’s More Than Just Wikipedia!

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN• How to use the research process• Effective search strategies• How to evaluate a website• What plagiarism is and how it can

be avoided• Helpful resources you can use

WHAT YOU ALREADY KNOWWhen you are told to research or

look up information, where do you go?

GoogleBingWikipedia

BUT DID YOU KNOW… Google and other search engines

are in business to make money, and that means bumping the ad-driven sites to the top of the page.

Wikipedia can be a starting point for research, but even its creators make no guarantee of its validity. Anyone can contribute to Wikipedia!

When 300 middle school students were asked how they begin research, most of them

answered that they simply type the question into Google.

Not one out of 600 high school students surveyed could

answer when asked how Google returns search results. Many

said it was magic.

WHAT YOU DIDN’T KNOW

Data provided by Erial

THE RESEARCH PROCESS

Define the Task

Locate Info

Select Sourc

esOrganize Notes

Present Ideas

AssessYour Work

LOCATING INFORMATION The first two results are advertisements for

companies trying to make money. NO INFORMATION!

Google returned 483,

000,000 results. Really?! Google returns the

NEWEST information first. Fresher isn’t always

better when you’re doing research.

LOCATING INFORMATION: SEARCH STRATEGY • Start general • Try multiple combinations of

words• Use more precise language• Look beyond the first five results!

Now we’re going to get logical…

LOCATING INFORMATION: SEARCH STRATEGY

When searching computer databases,

the results are controlled by use of Boolean operators:

OR, AND, and NOT Think about ice cream. Imagine all the

possibilities a soft ice-cream machine could

make if it offered chocolate, strawberry, and

vanilla, and could mix together any and all

combinations of those flavors.

If you don't wish to try every possible flavor combination the soft ice cream

machine offers, you must narrow your selection.

In database searching AND

narrows your search and links together different concepts.

Think of AND

as “only if also”

strawberry AND vanilla AND chocolate.

Images provided by Ithaca College Library

In database searching OR

expands a search by broadening the results. It is often used to combine

like words or ideas.

Think of OR

as “either or”

Strawberry OR vanilla OR chocolate

In database searching, NOT is used to get rid of an unwanted concept.

(Strawberry OR vanilla) NOT

chocolate

LET’S PRACTICE! Using Boolean Operators

Which of the following searches would return the most results? • Football AND high school • Football AND high school AND Ohio

Which of the following searches would return the fewest results? • children • children OR toddlers

How would you compose your search if you wanted to find vampire books but

you HATE the Twilight series? • Vampires AND Twilight• Vampires OR Twilight

• (Vampires) NOT Twilight

LOCATING INFORMATION—DATABASESEBSCO Student Research Center

6-8EBSCO All Database Search Academic Search Premier Sweet Search ERIC http://www.sweetsearch.com/# http://www.svlocal.org/staff/cgi-bin/homepage.pl?id=hslibrary

EVALUATING WEBSITES …But everything on the Internet is

true, right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bufTna0WArc

THINK LIKE A DETECTIVEWhen using the Internet to find information,

you should use the following criteria to determine whether it’s a source you want to

use.

Purpose Objectivity Currency Responsibility Clarity

TIPS FOR EVALUATING WEBSITES Be skeptical!

If the page has no author, editor, or publisher, it is probably NOT reliable

Look at domain names (.org, .com, .edu)

Information is only as good as its source

Always verify information with another source

PLAGIARISM The Dangers of Copy and Paste

Image obtained from Turnitin.com

WHAT? Plagiarism is: • To steal and pass off the ideas or

words of another as one's own• To use another's work without

crediting the source• To present an idea or product as new

that has been gathered from another source

In other words, plagiarism is an act of fraud.

It involves both stealing someone else's work and lying about it afterward.

WHY?

• It’s WRONG.

• It’s becoming easier and easier for teachers and principals to detect plagiarism.

• In the time it takes you to plagiarize, you could probably finish the actual assignment.

• Whenever you cut and paste from a website, you cut and paste all the garbage from that website as well.

• You think that a Wikipedia article sounds like you? Dream on.

Why Shouldn’t You Plagiarize?

WHAT TO CITE Always cite other

people’s words and ideasAnything you read in a book, article, web page, etc.

Anything that is presented or spoken like speeches,

PowerPoint's, etc.

You don’t need to cite what is considered

common knowledge

Example: Barack Obama is our

president. Example: President Taylor died in office.

BUT, you should cite something that is controversial or

contradicts common knowledge

Example: Barack Obama will not be elected for a

second term.

President Taylor died in office after drinking a cup

of tea that had been poisoned.

http://unitproj.library.ucla.edu

HELPFUL RESOURCES Plagiarism and Research Guide http

://unitproj.library.ucla.edu/col/bruinsuccess/

Helpful Research and Citation Guide http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/Bibliography Maker http://www.easybib.com/Helpful Citation Machine http://citationmachine.net/index2.php

SOME FINAL TIPS AND TRICKS

Understand • Be aware of

what type of source you’re viewing

• Article?• Blog?

Record • Take good

notes• Email

documents to yourself

• Keep note cards on hand

Organize• Keep all

documents until you’re done!

• Keep things in one place

• Write down important info