Searching for an Answer
Using Search Engines
How can I effectively use the computer to search a topic?
Types of Searches...
- General to Specific - going from a broad topic and narrowing down the information
- Specific to General - going from a known to find out more that are similar
Steps in searching...
- Select your database.
- Decide what is your goal (general to specific or specific to general).
- Type in keyword(s).
- Narrow down selections using Boolean Search Operators (AND, OR and NOT)
- Is this material sufficient? yes - start reading the information no - type in different keywords
- Did you get the answer?
When in doubt...
The school library and the public library have many databases available to you to find information on given topics both online and in hard copies. Try to avoid using google, bing, yahoo or others like this. You will have more success with the academic type databases.