Posted 10:20 P.M., 12 January 2013
How Proper Online Research Works
Legitimate
methods, suggested techniques, good sense, and plenty of patience
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September, 2012
Legitimate
online research involves much more than 10 seconds with Google and copy-pasting
the Wikipedia links. Legitimate research is called re-search
for a reason: patient repetition, careful filtering, and diligent citing of
articles, all with a critical and skeptical mindset that separates drivel from
useful content. There are over 80 billion web pages published, and most of
those pages are not worth quoting. To successfully sift it all, you must use
consistent and reliable filtering methods. You will need patience to see the
full breadth of writing on any single topic. And you will need your critical
thinking skills to disbelieve anything until it is intelligently validated.
If
you are a student, or if you are seeking serious medical, professional, or
historical information, definitely heed these 8 suggested steps to researching
online:
1. Decide if the Topic Is
'Hard Research', 'Soft Research', or Both.
'Hard' and 'soft' research have different
expectations of data and proof. You should know the hard or soft nature of your
topic to point your search strategy where it will yield the most compelling
research results.
A) 'Hard research' describes scientific and
objective research, where proven facts, figures, statistics, and measurable
evidence are absolutely critical. In hard research, the credibility of every
resource must be able to withstand intense scrutiny.
B) 'Soft research' describes topics that
are more subjective, cultural, and opinion-based. Soft research sources will be
less scrutinized by the readers.
C)
Combined soft and hard research requires the most work,
because this hybrid topic broadens your search requirements. Not only do you
need to find hard facts and figures, but you will need to debate against very
strong opinions to make your case. Politics and international economy topics
are the biggest examples of hybrid research.
2. Choose Which Online
Authorities Are Suitable for Your Research Topic.
A) Soft research topics
are often about collating the opinions of respected online writers. Many soft research
authorities are not academics, but rather writers who have practical experience
in their field. Soft research usually means the following sources:
2.
Forums and discussion sites (e.g. Police discussion forum)
3.
Consumer product review sites (e.g. ZDnet, Epinions).
4.
Commercial sites that are
advertising-driven (e.g. About.com)
B) Hard research topics
require hard facts and academically-respected evidence. An opinion blog will not
cut it; you will need to find publications by scholars, experts, and
professionals with credentials. The Invisible Web will often be important for
hard research. Accordingly, here are possible content areas for your hard
research topic:
2.
Government publications (e.g. Google's 'Uncle
Sam' search).
3.
Government authorities (e.g. the NHTSA)
4.
Scientific and medical content, sanctioned
by known authorites (e.g. Scirus.com).
5.
Non-government websites that are NOT
influenced by advertising and obvious sponsorship e.g. Consumer
Watch)
3. Use Different Search
Engines and Keywords
Now comes the primary legwork: using
different search engines and using 3-5 keyword combinations. Patient and
constant adjusting of your keywords are key here.
2.
Secondly, narrow and deepen your Visible
Web searching with Google and Ask.com. Once you have
experimented with combinations of 3 to 5 different keywords, these 3 search
engines will deepen the results pools for your keywords.
3.
Thirdly, go beyond Google, for Invisble Web (Deep Web) searching. Because Invisible Web
pages are not spidered by Google, you'll need to be patient and use slower and
more specific search engines like:
·
Scirus (for scientific
searching)
·
Surfwax (much more
knowledge-focused and much less commerce-driven than Google)
4. Bookmark and Stockpile
Possible Good Content.
While this step is simple, this is the
second-slowest part of the whole process: this is where we gather all the
possible ingredients into organized piles, which we sift through later. Here is
the suggested routine for bookmarking pages:
1.
CTRL-Click the interesting search engine
result links. This will spawn a new tab page each time you CTRL-Click.
2.
When you have 3 or 4 new tabs, quickly
browse them and do an initial assessment on their credibility.
3.
Bookmark any tabs you consider credible on
first glance.
4.
Close the tabs.
5.
Repeat with the next batch of links.
This method, after about 45 minutes, will
have yielded you dozens of bookmarks to sift through.
5. Filter and Validate
the Content.
This is the slowest step of all: vetting and filtering which content is
legitimate, and which is drivelous trash. If you are doing hard research,
this is also the most important step of all, because your resources MUST
withstand close examination later.
1.
Carefully consider the author/source, and
the date of publication. Is the author an authority with
professional credentials, or someone who is peddling their wares and trying to
sell you a book? Is the page undated, or unusually old? Does the page have its
own domain name (e.g. honda.com, e.g. gov.co.uk), or is it some deep and
obscure page buried at MySpace?
2.
Be suspicious of personal web pages, and
any commercial pages that have a shoddy, amateurish presentation. Spelling errors, grammar
errors, poor formatting, cheesy advertising on the side, absurd fonts, too many
blinking emoticons... these are all red flags that the author is not a serious
resource, and does not care about the quality of their publishing.
3.
Be suspicious of scientific or medical
pages that display scientific or medical advertising. For example: if you are
researching veterinarian advice, be wary if the veterinarian web page displays
blatant advertising for dog medicine or pet food. Advertising can possibly
indicate a conflict of interest or hidden agenda behind the writer's content.
4.
Be suspicious of any ranting, overstating,
overly-positive, or overly-negative commentary. If the author insists on
ranting and crying foul, or conversely seems to shower excessive praise, that
could be a red flag that there is dishonesty and fraudulent motivations behind
the writing.
5.
Commercial consumer websites can be good
resources, but be skeptical of every comment you read. Just because 7 people
rave that Pet Food X is good for their dogs does not necessarily mean it is
good for you. Similarly, if 5 people out of 600 complain about a particular
vendor, that doesn't mean the vendor is necessarily bad. Be patient, be
skeptical, and be slow to form an opinion.
6.
Use your intuition if something seems amiss
with the web page. Perhaps the author is just a little too positive, or
seems a little too closed to other opinions. Maybe the author uses profanity,
name-calling, or insults to try to make his point. The formatting of the page
might seem childlike and haphazard. Or you get the sense that the author is
trying to sell you something. If you get any subconscious sense that there is
something not quite right about the web page, then trust your intuition.
7.
Use Google 'link:' feature to see the
'backlinks' for a page. This technique will list incoming
hyperlinks from the major websites that recommend the web page of interest.
These backlinks will give you an indicator how much respect the author has
earned around the Internet. Simply go to google and enter 'link:www.(the web
page's address)' to see the backlinks listed.
6. Make a Final Decision
on Which Argument You Now Support.
After spending a few hours researching,
your initial opinion may have changed. Maybe you are relieved, maybe you are
more afraid, maybe you've just learned something and opened your mind that much
more. Whichever it is, you will need to have an informed opinion if you are
about to publish a report or thesis for your professor.
If you have a new
opinion, you might have to redo your research (or re-sift your
existing research bookmarks) in order to collate facts that support your new opinion
and thesis statement.
7. Quote and Cite the
Content.
While there is not a single universal
standard for citing (acknowledging) quotes from the Internet, the Modern
Language Association and American Psychological Association are two very
respected citing methods:
Aristotle.
Poetics. Trans. S. H. Butcher. The Internet Classics Archive.
Web Atomic and Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
13 Sept. 2007. Web. 4 Nov. 2008. ‹http://classics.mit.edu/›.
More details: The Purdue University
Owl Guide explains both of these citing methods in detail:
Remember:
DO NOT PLAGIARIZE. You must either
directly quote the author, or rewrite and summarize the content (along with
appropriate citing). But to restate the
author's words as your own is illegal, and will get you a failing mark on
your thesis or paper.
8. Choose a
Research-Friendly Web Browser
Researching is repetitive and slow. You
will want a tool that supports many open pages, and easily backtracks through
previous pages. A good research-friendly Web browser offers:
1.
Multiple tab pages open simultaneously.
2.
Bookmarks/favorites that are fast and easy
to manage.
3.
Page history that is easy to recall.
4.
Loads pages quickly for your computer's
memory size.
Of
the many choices in 2011, the best research browsers are Chrome and Firefox, followed by Opera. IE9 is also a competent browser,
but try the previous 3 choices for their speed and memory economy.
