WEB-BASED SEARCH ENGINES AND THE USE OF WIKIPEDIA

By Patrick Littrell

HOW TO USE GOOGLE SEARCH ENGINE

Step 1: Go to Google website: http://google.com This will take you to the main page which

is set up to service all of the U.S. Step 2: Locate the search bar on the

top right of the page. In this search bar, type in key words for the

subject you wish to research.

GOOGLE Step 3: Once you have typed in key

terms to the search bar press enter: This will take you to a list of items that are

on the World Wide Web, that relate to your topic

Look through all of the different options to attempt to find good of solid marterial to accomidate your needs.

*Google also offers its own Google Toolbar for both Internet Explorer and Firefox.

KNOWING WHAT IS A GOOD SOURCE

When looking through the many different websites and sources that pop up after your search has begun, you need to be able to evaluate them. One of the first items to come up on the

search list is an option is Wikipedia. We will discuss this web-search engine in

more detail later in this slide show. All remaining options need to be opened and

reviewed.

REVIEW WEB SEARCH RESULTS When reviewing a website or source:

1. Find out who or what is the source of the text; where did it come from, who is the author, or publishing company.

2. once you have validated the source of the text then you can more appropriately determine the validity of the source.

In some cases you may need to conduct an additional search on the web on the author of publishing company to find out who they are and their level of expertise.

REVIEW WEB SEARCH RESULTS 3. Once you have found a valid source that you can use, be

sure to document the source , taking all information down that you would need to be able to cite it later.

4. Determining a primary source from a secondary source. When looking through different sources, it can sometimes be hard

to understand what a primary resource from a secondary source. A primary resource is something that is original; a poem, letter,

story, speech, written law, and first hand account. This type of artifact is something from the time period or event that you may be researching.

A secondary source is one that is not a first hand account. Examples of this would be, school text books, biographies, second hand accounts… ect…

PDF. QUEEN PDF. Queen is a website that allows you to

search the World Wide Web for any published article, study or review. Step 1: Go to this website:

http://www.doc-live.com/ Step 2: Type in your keywords to the search

bar provided. Step 3: Review the list of PDF. Documents

that are provided to find material you can use.

WIKIPEDIA

HOW TO USE WIKIPEDIA… Wikipedia is a website that allows for the

public access to the editing feature of all topics found in its achieve. The edit feature of this website is what makes

the information found in Wikipedia to be potentially incorrect or false.

The proper way to use this website is as follows.

1. Use the same or similar method (search toolbar) to type in your keywords on the Wikipedia website.

HOW TO USE WIKIPEDIA… 2. Once you topic has been located, please be sure

to read over the material. 3. Please remember when reading over the

material on this web-based research tool, that some or all of the material may be inaccurate.

4. Scroll to the bottom of the webpage to locate the “Footnotes” section of the page. This portion of Wikipedia is the most valuable as it will tell you the sources used to create the material used for your subject.

Be sure to write these sources down and look to conduct a further search of this material as in most cases it will serve as great primary and secondary sources.

HOW TO USE WIKIPEDIA… The footnote section of Wikipedia is the

most important tool any researcher can use. Many or most of the Footnote sources

allow you to click on them and open the source itself.

On some occasion you may have to go to a public library to gain access to the book are article.

Overall, Wikipedia's “Footnote” section it where you can get your best research completed (or at least a good start).