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Chapter 5 - Supporting Student Research

Finding the right search terms
Research Journals
The Many Flavors of Google Searching
KnightCite citation generator

Finding the right search terms

Too often students come to us and claim they "can’t find anything" on their topic or they "can’t find anything good." Often it is because they do not have a search strategy with appropriate keywords. Last year a student told Tom that she was having difficulty finding sources on the Internet about movies in the 1920s. How could that be? Well, the keyword "movies" is not a particularly effective search keyword for information from the 1920s. People in the 1920s simply did not use the term "movies." Had the student done a little background reading on the 1920s in an encyclopedia before turning to Google, she likely would have come up with better keyword terms and phrases, such as "talking pictures," "talkies," or "silent films." The point is that it is a good idea to do some background reading and develop effective search terms before turning to a search engine.

Another important search strategy is to move both horizontally and vertically in the search process. The student in the paragraph above did not think of horizontal, related terms to movies, such as "films" or "pictures." There are also numerous times during the search process when moving vertically, either up or down, is needed. Broader terms (moving up) and narrower terms (moving down) can be used effectively to expand or contract a search.

For instance, a student who searches for "World War II" will find that these keywords yield many general and broad World War II sites. To narrow the search, the student could add categorizing terms such as names of campaigns, battles, generals, political leaders, and the like, to the "World War II" search terms. In those instances when search terms are too limiting and search results are too few, a search can be expanded by using broader terms. To illustrate, the three top results in a Google search for "weather underground" have to do with weather and climate, not the radical activist student organization. Adding a broad term such as "1960s" to the keywords "weather underground" leads immediately to sites on the "hippie era" organization.

To help his students think both horizontally and vertically in the search process, Tom draws an inverted triangle on the board and has his students brainstorm related, broader, and narrower terms for various topics. It is linked below:

Research Journals

It is critical as students conduct research that they maintain a record of their search terms, sources, and thinking. Here are some tools to help. The first link is a Word document template for student research journals. Blogs and Wikis are also great tools for tracking research progress, and the next two links are two our pages discussing those tools.

The Many Flavors of Google Searching

Too often students come to us and claim they “can’t find anything” on their topic on the Web or they “can’t find anything good.” Often it is because they do not have a search strategy with appropriate keywords. Google is currently the Web’s most popular search engine, and - for better or worse - the primary research tool for most students. Though we think that Ask.com organizes search results in a clearer navigational manner than does Google, the reality is that our students turn to Google more often than not for online search needs. So, we focus our efforts in this section on using that particular tool.

Google's Advanced Search video tutorial

Google Scholar video tutorial

Google News video tutorial

Google ranks sites by relevance, popularity, and other variables that Google won’t say much about. Relevancy is extremely important, because Google looks for exact matches with the keywords you enter into the search box. The popularity issue is a touch more nebulous. Here is how it works: a link from site A to site B is essentially a “vote” for site B. The more votes site B (or site A) gets, the higher it climbs in Google’s ranking of Web pages. If site A is itself a very popular site, then its vote for site B counts more than a vote from a less popular site. That is a basic explanation of Google’s popularity measurement. Just keep in mind (and remind your students) that popularity does not necessarily mean credibility. The credibility of a Web site is something that we all have to ascertain.

Try evaluating some Web sites together. Have students try to find a reliable Web site and an unreliable Web site, project examples of each onto a screen, and then ask them these questions of each Web site:

Who is the author of this site?
What is the purpose or goal of the Web site?
What is the purpose or goal of the individual or organization behind the Web site?
What are his or her credentials on this topic?
Does he or she have sufficient credibility to address this subject with authority?
Is there an organizational or corporate sponsor that may be influencing the content of the site?
Is there a way to verify the authenticity of the site and its authorship?
Is there a way to contact the author?
Has the Web site been recommended by credible organizations?

KnightCite citation generator

For students just learning the citation process, correct citation can be remarkably difficult. This video tutorial demonstrates how to use a simple, online citation generator. The video below provides an overview of KnightCite.