D-C Middle School
Research Strategies
"Together We're Better"
Evaluating Websites Practice
Practicing Resource Review Form-P
Practicing Resource Review Form-C
Practicing Resource Review Form-V
Practicing Resource Review Form-A1
Practicing Resource Review Form-A2
Practicing Resource Review Form--H
| Steps | Description | Notes |
| I | Identify your task/Define your question | Generate a list of subject terms and key words you can use |
| II | Locate, Access & Gather Information | First: search the online subscriptions purchased by the school and OPACs for books |
| Second: use a search engine to search the world wide web | ||
| III | Organize/Synthesize the Information | Take notes and organize the information in a logical order (sequential, chronological, etc.) |
| IV | Communicate/Share Information | Share your findings with others--graph, PowerPoint, report, display, etc. |
| V | Evaluate the Process and Product | Review your research process and the final product so that you can improve future research strategies. |
| Boolean | Description | Example |
| AND
+ |
narrows the search by requiring the presence of multiple words (these words MUST be present) | wolf AND Minnesota |
| +wolf +Minnesota | ||
| NOT
- |
narrows the search by excluding words (these words MUST NOT be present) | bat NOT baseball |
| bat -baseball | ||
| OR
(space) |
expands the search by including multiple workds (ANY of the words may be present) | wolf OR wolves |
| wolf wolves | ||
| Additional Tips | ||
"quotes" for phrases |
many database searches require that phrases be enclosed in quotes to avoid the space being interpreted as an OR--watch for directions | "United States" |
| * | Some databases allow you to use this "wild card" to expand your search of words with various prefixes and suffixes--watch for directions | Colon* (will find colony and colonies) |
| dog* (will find dogs and dogsled) |
||
Use Singlular Nouns |
Using singular versions of nouns will expand the search because it will pull the singular as well as plural versions | cat vs. cats (type cat) |
Sample Search Strings |
||
| Database Search: wolf AND "United States" NOT basketball | ||
| World Wide Web Search: +wolf +"United States" -baskeball | ||