INTERNET SEARCH

DISCOURSE & YOUR LOI

QUICK REVIEW/REMINDERS…WHAT INQUIRY ISN’T…1) Reporting information without looking at it through the context of your own experiences,

observations, knowledge, other texts, and other information 2) Research compiled to a question you already know the answer to a question to which you are

not open to ALL information.3) Research that only skims the surface and doesn’t show engagement or efforts to really understand

the issue from multiple angles4) Research that follows a straight line and stops at the first sign of an answer– This happens if

you find some basic info or a perspective that looks good and you think, “I found everything I need. I don’t need to go anywhere else.”

5) Research that doesn’t produce new questions and knowledge- Good inquiry should take you somewhere new and open new doors.

6) Planning an argument – Usually this leads to one-sided research.7) Hunting for a Single Answer-- You should find facts and possible answers along the way, but this

isn’t the end goal and likely causes frustration when you don’t find exactly what you’re looking for.8) Focusing your Search on Opinions– Don’t oversimplify. You can and should read opinions along

that way; conversations are founded through arguments and information is presented through arguments.

However, when you frame your search methods around finding opinions or sides, you limit your search and risk leaving out important information about the issue.

Focus on finding answers to questions about the issue that you need answers to. Your goal should be to teach someone about the issue... to become an expert.

CREATE GROUPS OF TERMS (SEARCH SENTENCES)

Once you have a list, look for ways those words can be grouped together and regrouped to get different results.

Learning to do this is one way to learn how to use the discourse of the internet and search engines.

It will only produce the words and groups you provide. It will not offer synonyms or order them based on what is most helpful for you. Search engines cannot read your mind. Like any other machine, they respond to your move.

You are essentially learning to “speak” to the search engine and tell it what you want it to find. It can’t find what you need unless you, first, figure out how to tell it what you need.

UNIT 1 REVIEW Ex. From Earlier Presentation (Standardized Testing)--

What are they meant to accomplish? How has their use risen in recent decades and why has it risen? How has their use been affected by NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND? What are some examples of standardized tests and when are they

used? How does testing differ in private schools or alternative education? Does it correlate with negative learning outcomes? Does it correlate to positive learning outcomes? Do educators think they are helpful or hurtful? Researchers? Are they really associated with Attention Deficit Disorder? What are the alternatives for measuring learning?

BRAINSTORMING FOCUS QUESTIONS1. FIRST-- Write your LOI in a few concrete sentences. Explain what the issue is and what you want to discover about the issue.2. NEXT-- Brainstorm at least TEN smaller questions to begin your research that you need to answer in order to understand different aspects of the issue:

Remember that these help you focus on finding out information you don’t know about the issue. Don’t focus on opinions; focus on finding answers to your questions.

DIVIDE YOUR QUESTIONS TO FOCUS AREAS TO HELP GENERATE MORE IDEAS. Here are some ideas--1. History of the Issue2. Current Situation or Examples-- Events/Problems/News 3. Questions about People Involved4. Questions about Organizations5. Specific Terms or Phrases you don’t know6. Current Policies or Laws7. Types of Information (Studies, Interviews, Statistics)8. Wondering Questions– How? Why? When? Who? What?9. Important Groups Involved in the conversation (Researchers, Scientists, Lawmakers, Educators, Parents,

Politicians, etc.)10. Questions about the Reasons or Motivation of Certain Groups

KEY WORD BRAINSTORMING FOR YOUR LOI

List keywords to help you research this issue.

Step 1: Write out your line of inquiry (LOI). Include any key questions that go along with it. DONE!

Step 2: Pull out and list the search terms you see (as many as you can think of). You can also consider words that are often appearing as you read (common vocabulary, names, and terms) and words in your smaller questions.

STEP 3List as many synonyms for any of those words as you can think

of.

Try to increase your list by at least 7 words.

STEP 4List as many specific terms or names that correlate to your LOI

as you can think of.

Try to increase your list by at least 4 words.

STEP 5List as many general terms that correlate to your LOI as you can

think of.

Try to increase your list by at least 4 words.

STEP 6Think of different ways you can group

these words together to create different search results.

Write at least 10 search sentences (3 or more words) that focus on different

questions you listed. You may add new words if you need them.

10 INTRO SEARCH TIPS1. Avoid evaluative terms– good, bad, right, wrong, effective, ineffective, etc.2. Add source types and domains to your search (documentary, .org)3. Add a “-” to remove domains and words from your results (-.com, -documentary, -blog,

-teen)4. Add quotation marks for exact phrases that you need to search for verbatim.5. Avoid common words (stop words) and punctuation unless searching for a specific

phrase inside quotes. [Ex. a, the, which, that, of] Both are typically ignored… but not always; this can mess up your intended results.

6. Search base words only (walk not walks or walked, cat not cats.) Exception... Gerunds (verb spelling used as a noun) should be used with exact spelling

(Walking, Running, Swimming).7. Order search sentences from general to specific in the search box will maximize your

Autocomplete so that you can get new sentences and ideas.8. Include a tilde (~) in front of a word to return results that include synonyms. 9. Use the (OR) or (|) to return results with either of two terms. Ex. result outcome will

return pages with both result and outcome, while result | outcome will return pages with either result or outcome.

10. Find Related Sites -- Ex. related:www.youtube.com can be used to find sites similar to YouTube.