So You Have to Write a Research Paper!

First of all, find out what information is available here, in the library…. The Library Catalog!

As you do your research, start with more general, background information about your topic. Encyclopedias and books are often the best sources for this type of information.

The library also has available online databases which provide information that has been evaluated and can be trusted to be accurate.

To access the online databases, go to the Fort Defiance website and select the library link at the top of the page. From the links at the left, select Online Databases 1 and 2.

Why are the databases important? Your research should be based on information that is Accurate Credible Unbiased Current, depending on your topic

What about Wikipedia???

Online Research Google is one of many search engines. See the “Search Engine” link on the library page for others. For at home research, another possibility: DuckDuckGo

Lets look for a moment at how search engines, in this case, Google, work…. How Search Works

What Food Does Tyson Like Best?

So, as you see, the right search terms will get you better results.. What matters……

climate change……. “climate change” Phrase Searching A phrase is more than one keyword. When items are enclosed with double quotation marks, search engines search for the exact phrase and return documents with the terms in the exact order as stated in the query. climate change……. “climate change”

It also reduces the number of results. Searching with phrases makes your query more specific by clearly defining the information needed. It also reduces the number of results.

Remember to use Boolean operators. AND, Or, NOT

Broaden a search with OR. College OR university At least one of the search terms is present in the webpage document. So your results will include documents with college, and with university.

Narrow a Search with AND AND requires that both terms be present in the document. College AND University Only documents that include both college and university will be found.

Eliminate a word, phrase or top level domain with NOT. College NOT University Use this to exclude terms or domains that you do not wish to use. Note: Google uses the minus (-) sign.

Query Syntax Syntax Spacing: “climate change” AND “North America” AND site:.gov