April
2008
Ten Basic Tips for Using Search Engines
Middle school students can encounter problems when researching on the web. This can lead to a wasting of a great deal of time and energy. Here are some very tips that should make the job much easier.
1. Spell keywords properly.
2. Choose strong keywords. For example if you were trying to determine what turtles eat, you may want to use turtle and diet as your keywords. Example: If you want to buy a car, don’t enter the keyword “car” if you can enter the keyword “Toyota.” Better still, enter the phrase “Toyota Dealerships” AND the name of the city where you live.
3. More keywords narrow your focus. Poodles black quiet “for sale” will result in fewer hits.
4. Keyword order counts. When using multiple keywords, the first word may carry more importance depending on the search engine.
5. Fine tune your keywords. If the number of results is too large, add keywords or change them.
6. Eliminate subtopics. Dogs –poodles, or you can eliminate words. This is using an option in the Advanced search of most search engines as well.
7. Use the Advanced Search option. This will give you more options. You can add or eliminate keywords or phrases and even search for specific document types such as PowerPoint and PDF files
8. Use “quotation marks.” This will lock in your words. “smelly turtles” will only fins sites that have the two side by side.
9. Choose the correct search engine. Use different search engines depending on your need. Understand search engines: general search engines for specific needs, directories for broad topics, metasearch engines to search many search engines at once. If you insist in writing and entire question such as, “What is the tallest building in the world?” then sites such as answers.com, or brainboost.com may be for you.
10. Go Old School, use books! Printed materials are often much easier and more efficient. Students often think the web is the only place to find information.
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Thanks, Mr. Sturgeon. I’m sharing this with my students as they begin research to write a biography about a famous person for EXPO.
Very Good tips mr Sturgeon and it’s very useful
Hi MR. Sturgeon this site is really googd because it gives in a quik way what you need to do when you reserch so it is really helpful. from Timian
Thank you for a good advice.
It helps me better when I’m search something.
Good tips Mr Sturgeon number 2 was really good.
Thank you for your tips. It was a little funny
WOW the websites were so good and helpful
Thank you for your awsome tips! Mr. Sturgeon!! You are my hiro!! kk
Thank you for good tips!!!!!!! It was easy to use!