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The two most commonly used aspects of the Internet are email and the World Wide Web. If you use an Internet service provider (AOL, ATT WorldNet, etc.) on your home computer, a free email account is included as part of the service. If you do not have an email account (or a home computer), find out if your school offers free accounts to students. If not, consider opening a free account on one of the web-based email services such as Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail.com. There are a few disadvantages to these services (such as relatively small storage limits), so read the fine print. Email enables you to contact anyone and everyone, so long as he or she has an email address—friends, family members, and even your instructors. The World Wide Web is an expansive collection of information. You can use the Web to visit libraries and museums, search for a job, network with people who share your interests, consult with a doctor, read the news, find the address of a long lost friend, buy books and CDs, or book an exotic vacation. And that's just the beginning. The Web is also a tremendous tool for researchers, but the sheer wealth of available information can be intimidating to a beginner. No one can truly "master" the vast quantities of information on the Web, but there are several tools that will help you to navigate it. Search engines allow you to search the web by entering keywords. There are a variety of search engines available; the table below lists some of the most popular:
To perform a key word search, enter the word or words that describe your subject. For example, if you are searching for information about Internet censorship and you enter those two words, Google will find web pages that contain either of the words anywhere - together or separately. If you add plus signs before each word -- +Internet +censorship - you will ensure that Google will return only sites that contain both words. If you wish to exclude certain concepts — say, you are interested in the Internet and censorship but not in pornography — you could search as follows: +Internet +censorship -pornography. To narrow the search further, search for a phrase rather than words by placing the words in double quotes: "Internet censorship." Then Google will find only those pages containing both words in a single phrase. You may also narrow your findings by conducting an "advanced search." This allows you to perform a "Boolean" search, using the terms AND, OR, NOT, and NEAR. For example you might search for "women writers" AND paris AND NOT poets. Details on conducting advanced searches are provided on the search engine's home page. Use an asterisk (*) when you want your search to include different possible endings for your keyword. For example you might search intern* to locate information on interns, internships, and interning. Most search engines function by similar rules. For specifics, check out the instructions on the engine's home page.
All websites are not created equal. While you should examine all potential resources, print and nonprint, for relevance, accuracy, bias, and so forth, you must scrutinize sources you find via the Internet more carefully than those you find in print, for the simple reason that virtually anyone who has a computer and an Internet access provider can post his or her own web page with no editing, no fact-checking, no reviews - no oversight of any kind, in fact. When your search yields a long list of sites to visit, as is most often the case, the first thing to do is scan the sites for their institutional affiliations (or lack thereof). These can be determined in many cases by a look at the URL-"Uniform Resource Locator," also referred to as the "web address." The first term in the URL will indicate what server hosts the material; the extension (the three letters that follow the "dot") can give you some idea what to expect from the site:
The brief descriptions of the site provided by your search engine should contribute to your decision about whether the site deserves a closer look. Once you decide to visit the site, of course, the same rules you apply to print sources apply: consider authorship, the sponsoring institution, date, presumed audience/purpose, etc., and cross-check facts if possible from reliable information you already have available to you. When you're sure a site is worth using for your research, be sure you document it properly. For a discussion of improper borrowing and tips on documentation, see Plagiarism and the Internet.
General Reference Materials Available Online For encyclopedias, almanacs, reference guides and useful links, try visiting: Refdesk.com: Very thorough and well-organized site of research and reference links. Includes Facts Search Desk, Current News and Features, links to a host of online information databases, and much more. The WWW Virtual Library: The oldest online catalog of the web, compiled wholly by volunteers. Consists of pages of carefully selected and maintained key links for particular areas of the web (Agriculture, Education, Science, Society, etc.). FedWorld Information Network Home Page: links to U.S. government reports and web sites Ebscohost and InfoTrac: online computer search services provided through many libraries, allowing you to search through full text articles. Project Gutenberg: online versions of classic and public-domain books Dictionaries, Thesauri, and Grammar Guides Online
Writing Labs (OWLs) Other online writing resources: Links to writers' organizations, composition sites, English as a Second Language resources, etc. Specialized Directories to Internet discussion groups, Internet addresses, Internet white pages, etc. |