RESEARCH TIPS & TRICKS

If possible, always use websites you know you can trust. For example, the research websites provided by the state of California are all high quality educational resources. They are specifically designed for K-12 students. You would be better using one of these sites than clicking a random website you find when searching on Google.

Helpful hint: websites ending in .edu are affiliated with higher education facilities. If using Google, try typing in your search term and then .edu to find a really high quality resource.

A bibliography is used to show which resources you used to find the information in your work. Traditionally bibliographies contained lists of books. These days they are more likely to contain lists of websites.

The format of a bibliography is very precise. If you use an ONLINE BIBLIOGRAPHY MAKER it will take the information you used and build your bibliography for you.

Make sure you keep track of which resources you use in your work. You will need this information if you are required to build a bibliography (see above). Also, if your teacher asks you 'where did you read that?' it is much better to have an answer than to say you don't know.

(Example: if a friend tells you something you find hard to believe, and this friend cannot explain where they got this information from, you would want more proof before accepting it. If the same friend says 'I read it on the official website for the Olympic games, look, you can check it out there yourself' you would be able to verify this for yourself.)

If you're not using a fully trustworthy resource, you should check how accurate the information is by consulting extra sources.

For example, Wikipedia has lists of footnotes at the bottom of every article. You can use these to find where the information in the article came from originally. Think of Wikipedia as a summary; the real information lies in the footnotes.

Try to be aware of bias and information, particularly if you are researching something online. Ask yourself 'who wrote this? Does this person have an agenda?' Train yourself to question where information is coming from and determine how trustworthy it is.

You have many different options available to you when trying to find information. You might try a book. You might want to use one of the approved educational websites. A very important research skill is determining which resource will be most useful for this particular area of study. Try to experiment. Don't rely on the same site over and over.