Written Communication Guide

Researching for your Problem-Solution Essay 

Finding 4 quality sources has never been easier!

Google Scholar 

Feeling stuck? Google Scholar is Google's nerdy cousin: It searches only scholarly, peer-reviewed articles. Any results with a "PDF" link are freely accessible. If you can't open the full text, let a librarian know - we'll get it for you through interlibrary loan! 

Google is usually our first stop when we're searching for information. When researching, we often need more specific search results. These Advanced Google Tools allow you to refine your search and limit to specific formats, domain names, and phrases. 

• Google Advanced

  Allows you to make your search results more relevant. As well as to filter your results by language, region, date of last update, specific websites, and much more.

• Refine Web Searches

  Find other cool tricks and tips for things you can put in the search box at Google's Refine web searches page.

 -- Use the "site or domain" box to limit your search to only certain domains, such as .gov, .org, or .edu 

• .gov = These are US government sites
• .edu = Academic-affiliated sites owned by schools, universities, and research institutions
• .org  = Non-profit (but be careful - it is actually fairly easy to get a ".org" domain, so research the organization to ensure they are reliable.) 
• .com = A commercial site, anyone can own a .com domain. 

   

ABC's of Evaluation

Author

• Who wrote this? - If you can't tell, that's a red flag!
• What are their credentials? Do they have any expertise on this topic? Are they a journalist, a blogger, a politician? - Do a Google search on them if you can't tell. 
• Who is the author affiliated with? Do they work for a new station? Are they affiliated with any political groups, companies, or non-profits? Is there a corporate sponsor? 
• Why did the author or organization write this? To inform? To sell something? To persuade? 

Bias (any unsubstantiated judgement, statement or evidence) 

• How is the information presented? (Fact? Opinion?) 
• Is their inflammatory language or unsubstantiated evidence? 
• Can you find alternative sources that support the claims in this article? 
• What voices and perspectives are MISSING from this article/video? Who is not represented? 

Credibility

• Has anyone reviewed this information? Is it peer-reviewed? Does an editorial board review the information? 
• How up-to-date is the aricle? Is the information out-of-date? 
• What was their research methodology? How did they collect their evidence - did they use survey tools? Interviews? 

  When you search for something online, Wikipedia is often one of the first results.

Should you use it? The answer is YES....and no.