Better online searching

Asking "Where is the nearest McDonald's?" or "Show me a picture of a gerbil" is very effective if you are using the voice search function on a smart phone, but for most research you have to do a bit of planning first and use key word and search terms.

Defining: Steps in the process

• What are the keywords and ideas of the task?

Students should be able to:

• clarify the meanings of the words of the task

• identify and interpret key words and ideas in the task

• Take the time to look at the keywords of your research topic or assignment.

• Be sure to understand them and then use a dictionary to find alternative and related words. This will give you options if your first search term is unproductive.

• This is the most common step that is rushed and students become disappointed or distracted when they can't find what they want.

(See Keywords worksheet example here)

Search for an exact match

Put a word or phrase inside quotes. For example, "tallest building".

Exclude words from your search

Put - in front of a word you want to leave out. For example, jaguar speed -car

Combine searches

Put "OR" between each search query. For example, marathon OR race.

Search for a specific site

Put "site:" in front of a site or domain. For example, site: youtube.com or site: gov.

(Adapted from 'Refine web searches', Google, accessed January 2021)

This video explains how 'Boolean operators' (AND, OR, NOT), quotation marks ('' '') and the asterisk symbol (*) can be used together to form a very accurate search string: https://youtu.be/LTJygQwYV84

For more information:

NSW Department of Education. (2019). How online search is changing. https://www.digitalcitizenship.nsw.edu.au/articles/how-online-search-is-changing