Google vs. Databases

Google.com

  • Search engine for WWW
  • No standards-anyone can create information
  • Results can be ranked based on purchase
  • For all purposes
  • ​Often have to pay for scholarly results
  • ​Results are unstable
  • ​Must build citation (and know how!)

Both:

  • Information
  • Advanced search techniques

Databases

  • Collection of Resources
  • Vetted, peer-reviewed sources
  • For ACADEMIC purposes (what does that mean for quality of article?)
  • All results free to students​
  • ​Results are stable (not likely to disappear)
  • ​Automatic citation

Evaluating Websites

Authority

  • Who is the author of the website? Who do they represent?
  • Is the author a qualified expert in relation to the information presented?
  • Has the other written other things?

Accuracy

  • Does the website cite other sources for information?
  • Do other websites give the same information?
  • Does the site have overall integrity and reliability?

Currency

  • When was the website last updated?
  • Are links functioning or broken?
  • Is the information presented recent or outdated?

Objectivity

  • ​Is information provided balanced, objective, factual or subjective and opinionated?
  • Is the point of view balanced with supportive arguments?
  • What's the bias?

Scope

  • What is the purpose of the website? Who is the intended audience?
  • Is the information relevant to your needs?
  • How in depth does the information go?

What does the URL represent?

  • .com - commercial entity or individual (anyone can create a .com)
  • .edu - educational institutions only such as a university or college
  • .net - originally intended for network technologies such as internet service providers
  • .org - nonprofit organization (anyone can create a .org)
  • .gov - government agencies only

Steps for Effective Research

  1. Examine your essential questions and find the keywords. Think of synonyms for these keywords.
  2. Use the advanced search feature of databases to test different combinations of your keywords.
  3. Filter your results and learn to skip irrelevant results.
  4. Save relevant results to your Google Drive for easy sharing and retrieval.
  5. Keep a research journal to remember important details from your relevant results.
  6. Stay flexible- go where the research takes you!

Research Tools

Remember the Boolean Operators

Boolean Operators are AND, OR, NOT.  Using these operators while searching allows you to combine or exclude keywords in a search, which will help provide more precise results.
​
Boolean Operators are easily understood through Venn Diagrams.
AND
Using AND will only show sources that include both keywords in the search results.  
OR
Using OR will show sources that talk about either keyword.  Sources may include one or both keywords.
NOT
Using NOT will only show sources that include the first keyword but not the second keyword.

Advanced Search

When starting research, it is best to use keywords (closest to natural language) that yield many results.  Then use subject terms (predesignated tags for a resource) that yield more relevant results.  To narrow even further, use advanced search features.

Research Journal

Keeping a research journal is a time saver.  Use it to store all relevant information while doing research so you don't have to go back and search for information later on.  Saving it in a collaborative Google Doc allows you to easily share resources and ideas with your partners while everyone remains accountable for their work.
research_journal.docx
File Size: 12 kb
File Type: docx
Download File

Bibliography- MLA style

A bibliography, also called a Works Cited page, is a list of citations for the sources you use in a project or paper.  These sources may be books, websites, magazines, videos, audio files, and more.  You must follow formatting requirements for a bibliography page.  

Formatting:
Title-"Works Cited" or "Bibliography"- bold and centered on the page.
Works listed in alphabetical order based on first piece of information, which may be an author's last name or
       the title of an article.
All sources written using hanging indention, like the sentence preceding this one.
The whole page should be double spaced.

Resources:
Citations may be copied directly from any school database.
Create your own citations using www.easybib.com
Learn about formatting for all types of resources at https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/

Sample Bibliography: