What Does Good Research Look Like?

In order to do good research, there are some skills and techniques you have to practice.  In today's class we began to identify those methods.  As a class, we came up with the following strategies that are essential for good internet research:

CHOOSE A GOOD SEARCH ENGINE:

I recommend Google.  There are other many other search engines, but if you want to use another one, ask me, and we'll look at it together to decide if it's a good one to use for the type of research that you're conducting.

BE CAREFUL ABOUT HOW YOU PHRASE YOUR SEARCH.

When you type words in, your search engine is going to search for all those words in addition to those words in combination. So, for example,

prom dresses Spanish Harlem

will result in Google searching for everything that has the word "prom," the word "dresses," the word "Spanish" and the word "Harlem," in addition to looking for "prom dresses" and "Spanish Harlem."

In order to get ONLY prom dresses in Spanish Harlem, you would need to put each phrase in quotes. That tells the search engine to only look for those words in those exact combinations. So you can search Google by typing in

"prom dresses" "Spanish Harlem"

However, there may be stores in Spanish Harlem that are not listed because they do not use the phrase "Spanish Harlem" in their own pages.  Perhaps they use "Upper East Side," or "East Harlem" or simply list the street on which they are located, like "3rd Avenue," or "Third Avenue," or "116th Street" or "116 St".  All of these are different search terms.  If you really want to find a place in Spanish Harlem, you may have to try all these things.  ALSO, A LOT OF STORES, INSTITUTIONS, and BOOKS DO NOT HAVE WEBSITES.  Everything that exists is not online.  A person might have a store and not make a website for it.

     We found out that a lot of stores in Spanish Harlem that sell prom dresses do not have websites.  That does not mean they do not exist.  Lots of places that exist are not online.

WHEN TRYING TO FIND DETAILED INFORMATION OR READ A BOOK, REMEMBER:
      Sometimes you actually have to go to a library to read a document or book on the topic.  Usually, entire books are not online,  especially new ones.  The only entire books that are online are public domain books (like Shakespeare, Chaucer, etc). You can find many public domain books online at Project Gutenberg.  You can also check out authorama.com.

WHO CREATED THE WEBSITE?
Find out who wrote the information on the website, and write down those details.

ASK YOURSELF: Who are they? Who is the author of the website? What organization or group is behind it?

ARE THEY REPUTABLE?

• Have you already heard about the authors or institutions behind the website and do you know that you're reputable already? (for instance, students suggested that one might go to merriam-webster.com, because we already know that they are a good company that publishes dictionaries.)

• What does the URL tell you? 
•  .edu = education (universities, colleges, large school districts)
• .gov = US government
• .uk = United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland)
• .ca= Canada. Other two letter designations indicate other countries.
• .org = (usually) non-profit organization
• .net = company (or anything commercially available)
• .com = company

ARE THEY RELIABLE?
o Is there a second website that confirms the information on that website?
o When did they update their page last?
o Google the owner and/or author.