Research

1 - Conducting Research

When carrying out research there are many different sources you could gather data from; websites, books, leaflets, posters, TV, radio, interviews etc.

We are going to focus on internet research in this section. The second section on assessing research will be useful to consider for all types of research.

Keywords

This is the most important part of any internet research: The keywords you enter into the search. Think about the keywords you are going to enter and try to make them as specific as possible - you are more likely to get useful results. If you don't find what you want then you may need to add more keywords to narrow your search.

Take some time to look through your search results, the information or image you want may not be in the first 10 hits!

Tools

Most search engines (like Google) have additional tools to help you improve your searches. See below for examples of the extra search tools that Google offer.

The first is the 'Tools' button which gives you some options for where the website is and when it was updated:

The second is the 'Advanced Search', accessed by clicking on 'Settings'. Once in the advanced search you will need to read the options available, but some allow you to remove websites that contain certain words, which can be a very useful way of improving your search:

2 - Assessing Research

When you are gathering information from a website on the internet, or from any other source, you must be aware that you cannot trust everything you see and read.

Websites / books / articles etc can be biased towards one point of view and / or may give unreliable information. You must decide which sources of information to trust.

Factors to consider - Who / Why / When / Supported:

Who wrote it?

• Who is the individual or organisation that has created the information? Is the individual or organisation likely to be fair and unbiased?
• Might the site’s creator(s) have an ‘agenda’ to push, a reason to give biased or unreliable information? Sometimes, bias can be completely unintentional and simply reflect the writer’s own personal perspective and understanding of the topic.
• Are they selling a related product or have something else to gain by persuading the reader?
• Are they a campaign group trying to change people’s attitudes?
• Have they offered other sources of information to back up their content? If they have referenced other, trusted websites then this is a good sign.
• Is it an official government site (.gov)? This should make it more trustworthy.
• Is it a trusted, independent organisation (e.g. BBC)?
• You may be able to find out about the site’s author(s) by looking at the links on the home page (it may have an ‘About’ or ‘FAQ’ page).

Why has the site / book etc been created?

• Is it stating facts or trying to persuade you?
• Is it presenting the information from an objective point of view, or is it giving ideas and opinions?
• Are they using emotional vocabulary and / or images to influence or persuade the reader?
• Do the arguments or points raised make sense? Are there inconsistencies in what they are saying?

When was the site last updated / book written?

• If you are looking for facts and figures, or any other information, then you should consider when it was entered if it is still relevant today. Websites will normally show the date that each page was updated, often near the bottom of the page.

Is the information supported elsewhere?

• It is good practice to check any information on other sites or sources to verify it is correct. It is much more likely to be corrrect if similar information is found somewhere else.