Find Quality Web Information

Planning Your Search Strategy     |     Searching the Web      |        Evaluating Web Information

Planning Your Search Strategy

A well-planned search strategy greatly improves the chances of finding the information you need.

1. Define the topic in your own words. It can be helpful to state the topic in the form of a question, e.g., what are the effects of television violence on children?

2. Identify the main concepts and keywords. For the topic, what are the effects of television violence on children?, the main concepts would be: television, violence, children.

3. Refine your search terms. 

Consider:

  • synonyms/different forms of keywords, e.g., tv in addition to television
  • alternative spellings. Consider British vs. American spellings, e.g., labour/labor, and even mis-spellings, e.g., geneology vs. genealogy
  • truncation and wildcards, e.g., child* will retrieve child, children; wom*n will retrieve woman, women

4. Combine the terms

AND (+)   retrieves records with both terms, e.g., television AND violence

OR   retrieves records with either term, e.g., television OR tv

NOT (-)   retrieves records with the first term but not the second, e.g., child* NOT adolescent*

NEAR   retrieves records with terms within a certain number of words of each other, e.g., television NEAR violence. In some search engines, you just use the letter N with a number indicating how far apart the words can be. television N3 violence would mean "the words television and violence, within 3 words of each other"

Also Consider:

  • phrase searching--the use of quotation marks to ensure that words appear immediately next to each other, e.g.,"television violence"
  • nesting--the use of round brackets to specify the order in which searching should be done, e.g., ("television violence " OR "tv violence") AND child*
  • site-specific searching--in many commercial search engines, you can use site: to search only on a specific website. For example, site:upei.ca would search only upei.ca webpages. site:.ca would search only .ca websites.

5. Construct the search strategy

For: what are the effects of television violence on children?
One strategy could be: (television OR tv) AND violence AND child*
 

 Choosing Search Tools

Many people begin their searching with Google, Bing, or another large commercial search engine. These tools often bring up thousands or millions of results, including paid advertisements. Here are some other tools to consider to expand or more specifically target your search.

  • DuckDuckGo is a search engine that does not track your searches or personalize your results. (It does still serve ads.) Because of this, you might get very different results than with other search engines.
  • Google Scholar is a specialized Google product that searches and cross-references sources it thinks are likely to be scholarly publications. If you're looking for academic journal articles or scholarly books beyond what you've found in OneSearch, try Google Scholar.
  • The Creative Commons search tool looks for content (including pictures, videos, and writing) that has a Creative Commons license, allowing you to reuse or edit it in your own work.
  • We have additional recommendations for places to search or to find content in many of our Subject Guides.

Web Searching Tips

  • Look for Help information from each tool's website, or look for a tip sheet or chart showing the details of how a particular tool works.
  • Go to the Advanced Search page and look at what options are available.
  • Don't bog down in any search strategy which doesn't work.

  • Remember: the information you’re seeking may not be available for free on the Web. Contact a librarian if you'd like advice on adjusting your search strategies.

     

Evaluating Web Information

It is extremely important to critically evaluate information you find on the Internet, whether you are planning to use it in an academic paper or you're just curious about a topic. Here are some questions to ask:

  • When was this written? Has it been updated?
  • Who wrote this? Who are they? (Once you find the name of the author or organization, try looking them up elsewhere. Do they seem to have an expertise or regular beat? Do they have lived experience, education, or credentials related to this topic?)
  • What website is this on, or what publication was it in? What kinds of things do they usually publish?
  • What country did this content come from? Is it relevant to your information needs?
  • Why was this written? Who is its intended audience? What is the author trying to convince you to think or do?
  • Is it clear whether this content is an advertisement or an "advertorial" (sponsored content)?

You can use just about anything from the Internet, but it's important to be able to describe its context and purpose. For example, a labour union representative and an employer-side lawyer will describe a workplace issue and its possible solutions very differently. A sponsored article about a beachside resort and an article about the environmental impact of sea level rise will have very different focuses when describing the same landscape.

If you're not certain about a source or how to use it, ask a subject librarian or your professor. 

 

Created by: Betty Jeffery, B.A., M.L.S.
Former Instruction & Education Services Librarian
Date Created: 23-May-2000
Date Revised: 14-July-2023 by Katelyn Browne, B.S., M.S.L.S., Instructional Services Librarian

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