In class, or for homework, your teacher may ask you to research a topic, person or an event.
There are two main sources of information you can turn to: books or the internet.
Benefits |
Information has already been filtered to ensure it is accurate
Books in the school library have been specially selected for your age group, ability and relevance to your school subject |
Pitfalls |
Information can go out of date
Information can be limited |
Benefits |
Vast range of information available
Only have to look in one place rather than across the whole library Information can be very up-to-date, to the second in some cases |
Pitfalls |
Can be inaccurate or even false, with no real repercussions
Information is not filtered so it can time consuming finding information at the right level. |
Getting the Most Out of the Internet
Wikipedia can be a good springboard for your research BUT the content can be updated by pretty much anyone – I’ve even heard stories of teachers deliberately making things up on
Wikipedia to catch students out. Make sure you confirm any facts you find on Wikipedia on another reliable website or in a book. |
Google isn’t the only search engine, and for research, you may find a different one more helpful.
Carrot2 sorts your search into topics, Yippy works in a similar way and can help you narrow your search. If you do use Google, look out for the top links, which are usually there because they are adverts, not because they are the most relevant to your search. |
If you are looking for information about a topic that’s more than one word, e.g Easter Island, use speech marks (“Easter Island”) to tell your search engine you want both words together, otherwise you will be shown results for Easter OR Island.
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Find out as much as you can about who wrote the website when – this will often be with a copyright symbol at the bottom of the page, an ‘about this site’ or ‘about us’ link. If you can’t find this information, or you are unsure whether to trust it, double check with a reliable site or in a book before you use any of your findings in your work.
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