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ENG 450 Research Writing - Poulsen

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Google

Get the most out of your Google search

Searching in Google can also help you uncover relevant articles for your research. The problem is, how to find results that will be helpful? Here are a couple of ways to target your search results in Google:

SITE Searching

One way to target results in Google is to employ the site search. This requires you use a specific phrase before adding search terms to tell Google you only want results from a specific website or domain. The search always begins with site + colon + URL or Domain all without any spaces; next, add a space and insert your search terms. See the examples below - 

  • site:nytimes.com 'black panther' Marvel review This search phrase tells Google that you'd like results from the New York Times website that mention Black Panther as a phrase, or that mention Marvel and review. This helps you target review articles about the movie.  **This is one of the best ways to search for articles on a given topic in the New York Times** Notice that we put artificial intelligence in quotes, to ensure that Google looks for the phrase, not the individual words.
  • site:gov cohousing policies  This search phrase tells Google you'd like to see articles, reports, etc., from government websites that include information about social media and adolescents. You could add more terms, if you wanted to narrow or target the search still further.
  • site:edu oneida utopia   This search phrase tells Google to retrieve articles published by or in educational institutions about the effect of analytics in professional sports. Note: You could replace professional sports with a particular sport, or college sports, to narrow the results even further.

Searching for sites on your topic

Learn how to use aggregators and find sites with large collections.  For example, if you want to explore a connection between art and architecture, you can search on large aggregate sites like reddit or deviantart or artsy.  These sites hold large subthreads of different topics and information.
  • Searching through an aggregator like reddit
    • Go to the reddit home page and search for your topic "utopia" or "utopian architecture".  If there is a whole subreddit devoted to that topic you will see r/ [topic name].
  • Searching through an aggregator like deviantart
    • Some aggregator sites do not have strong search functions, or don't have as much organizing infrastructure like reddit does.  For these types of sites you might start with a site search.  site:deviantart utopia

Another strategy is to understand how to best craft your google query to get relevant articles.  Try starting your search with a question about the best sites for your topic. 

"How to find experimental art"  or "Best sites for utopian architecture" will return some lists for sites with collections of your topic.  Then you can search directly on the site itself or use a site search on google.

Try also to look for the most popular or largest magazines or sites on your topic.  For example, if you want to search for utopian architecture projects, try site searching on architectural digest. com  This is one of the largest and oldest magazines on architecture.
Other search tips in Google
  • Limit the date of your results by inserting the phrase after + colon + year or date  without any spaces
    • after:2016 Hate speech regulations college campuses  This phrase tells Google that you'd like all your results to have been published after 2016 (note: the after phrase can come before or after your search terms)
    • You can also limit your results to a given date range by clicking on Tools under the search bar, and then Any Time under that.
  • Search for an exact phrase by putting your terms in quotes when entering them in the search bar, e.g., "hate speech" -- using the quotes will ensure you retrieve results with that exact phrase.

Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a great place to search for articles about your topic. Google Scholar includes scholarly article content, as well as chapters from authoritative books and reports. Google Scholar is a great place to search when you are not having luck in the databases. It is more forgiving, and often can help find relevant articles important to your research. After finding some articles in Scholar, you can discover how the subject matter is discussed, and revisit the databases armed with some good information and powerful search terms.

Keep in mind that full text may not always be available from Google Scholar; if you have enough time, articles that do not have accompanying fulltext may be requested through Interlibrary Loan.