Using the Internet for Research

Search Engines Websites

What is a Search Engine?

A search engine is a tool which will search the Internet for sites containing words you select as your search term.

What are some of the major search engines?

How does the search engine find out about all the information on the web?

The publisher of the website may register in directly with the search engine A document may be found by the search engine company as part of its research routines using “spiders” or search robots.

Top of the List?

Popularity How many hits How many links Title of the site Site’s actual content

Search Smarter

Boolean Operators And Or Not http://www.google.com

Search Smarter

Wildcards * smok* will search for smoke, smoking, smoker all of the different endings

Search Smarter

Quotation Marks Searches for those exact words In that exact order Ex. George Washington

Search Smarter

Site Operators Will only look for that specific extension ex. George Washington, site:edu

Search Smarter

Web Address Extensions .org- organization .com- company .sch- school outside of the U.S.

.k12- most U.S. school sites .edu- U.S. higher education sites .gov- U.S. government site .ac – higher ed outside of US usually used with country code, example, “.ac.uk” .net - network .mil – US military .co – Company (if paired with a country code, example “.co.uk,” the state of Colorado or

The Game

Rules Limited to 10 search terms total 5 minutes per question Team with the fewest amount of hits, still finding the right answer… wins!

Question #1

What are the methods of tattoo removal that a teen might consider?

laser surgery dermabrasion surgical excision

Question #2

Who was head of the Woman’s Peace Party during the Progressive Era?

Jane Adams

Question #3

Which of William Shakespeare’s plays has been said to refer to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605?

Macbeth

Website Evaluation

Copyright Date Is it current or outdated?

Created and Updated dates similar to copyright dates tells how current information is Contact Information can you contact the person in charge of the site?

Website Evaluation

About Us link this can tell you valuable information about the creators of the website Go to the source sponsors cut off end of web address Personal websites “~” % if there is a name in the web address ex. “jdoe”

Website Evaluation

Follow this link to a list of websites to evaluate http://novemberlearning.com/index.php

?option=com_content&task=view&id= 95&Itemid=93 &limit=1&limitstart=1

Can you trust all information you find on the Internet?

Know where your information comes from!

Use all of your newly acquired knowledge of the Internet to look for resources for your papers. If you haven’t chosen a topic yet use this time to research which person you want to write about.

Helpful Websites

Tips on writing a persuasive paper. http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/awolaver/term1.htm

The Five Paragraph Essay: Persuasive Essay and Prompts have them evaluate http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Atrium/1437/tips.html

Study Guides and Strategies: Persuasive Essays http://www.studygs.net/wrtstr4.htm