Web page: Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature, Cuesta College
Web page: List of academic databases and search engines, Wikipedia
Web site: Crowdsourcing, Mashable
Web site: Crowdsourcing.org
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Finding Answers
Answering your research questions will require you to use a variety of sources:
▶ Direct observation provides firsthand experience and includes everything from attending a concert to conducting a lab experiment. (See page 56.)
▶ Electronic media such as videos, audio files, and interactive programs supply information in an interesting way.
▶ People can be good sources of information, and experts are often interviewed on TV and radio. Consider conducting your own interview. (See page 385.) Teachers, parents, and other adults may be knowledgeable about your topic.
▶ Print periodicals (including magazines, newspapers, and scholarly journals) provide information on various topics. Search the Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature or a periodical database in your library to find what you need.
▶ Reference books, such as encyclopedias, atlases, almanacs, and dictionaries, can be good starting points for research. Check your library’s reference section.
World Wide Web Research Tools
The World Wide Web provides access to a wealth of resources. Many can be reached from a home Internet connection, and your school or library system may be able to connect you to nonpublic sources.
- Chat applications allow you to talk in real time with other people around the world, whether by keyboard, microphone, or Webcam. More than a way to spend time with friends, chat can be used to interview an expert.
- Email allows scholars around the globe to communicate easily, one reason the Internet was invented. Today, you too can email questions to experts—everyone from authors to entrepreneurs to NASA scientists.
- Forums and message boards are special Web sites where people post questions and answers about various topics. Each site is devoted to a particular subject or interest. Often you can find leads in these message “threads” to information that is unavailable elsewhere.
- Search sites, or search engines, are decent starting points for research, especially if you compare results from more than one and also use their advanced search features. (See page 368.)
- Scholarly databases give access to articles across a wide spectrum of subjects.
- Social media can provide up-to-date insight into current events. They also allow for data mining and crowd-sourcing. (See pages 269–290 and 504.)
- Wikis represent a group effort to codify knowledge. While they can provide new insights about a topic, bear in mind that the information may be untested and even unreliable.
Your Turn Identify several likely sources of answers to your research questions (pages 364–365). Do initial research using those sources and write a one-page journal entry about what you learned.
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Pursuing a Topic
The following tips will help you find the best answers in the shortest time.
▶ Choose your starting point. Consider your topic and decide where to begin, whether a reference book, a how-to video, or an email to an expert.
▶ Note other sources. Look for a bibliography or list of works cited, hyperlinks to other Web pages, people or events mentioned in interviews, and so on. Pay attention to footnotes and endnotes. (See pages 396–403.)
▶ Use print-source features. Check a book’s back cover copy for an overview. Read the preface, introduction, and foreword. Use the table of contents to identify chapters and parts. Check the index for specific topics and page numbers. Follow cross-references to more information on a topic. Use a newspaper’s front-page directory of sections and each section’s contents list to locate specific stories and features.
Electronic Search Strategies
Early computer programmers used “GIGO” to mean “Garbage In, Garbage Out.” In other words, the quality of your input determines the quality of your results. Here are some smart electronic search strategies:
- Use more than one search site. Different search engines use different algorithms to find and rank results. Some add a social element, adjusting results to match what other people have searched for, and all search engines adjust their algorithms regularly. Determine to go beyond your favorite search engine and compare the results from several sites.
- Phrase questions and keywords carefully. Try to predict which search words will bring the best results. The more accurately you phrase your search, the more efficiently the site will be able to locate good resources.
- Notice suggested searches. Many search sites begin suggesting common search phrases as you type yours in. These suggestions may give you new, useful ideas; either follow them or jot them down for later.
- Read the result summaries. Browse the list of results and the brief description of each entry. These summaries will help you to judge the source’s potential and may give you new keywords to consider.
- Go beyond the first page. Sometimes your best search result shows up on a later page. Scan the first page of results and then keep clicking to the next and beyond, until you stop finding entries with potential.
- Adapt your keywords to include promising phrases in your result descriptions. Then search again, using those new keyword phrases.
- Use advanced search strategies. Most search programs have a link to an “Advanced Search” page. There you’ll find instructions for using specific features, doing Boolean searches, and so on.
Your Turn Brainstorm a list of keywords for your guiding research question from page 364. Compare your list with a classmate’s, and make suggestions to refine or expand each other’s keywords.