QUESTION A - What Are You Going To Write About?
You should choose a topic that interests you. To help you to choose a topic you could start by looking at some of the sites listed below.

Ideas for research essays 1

Ideas for research essays 2

Ideas for research essays 3

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has got lots of interesting information. You could try Environment Australia too.

Try to define your topic. If, for example, you write about 'Pollution' it will be very difficult to find where to start. It is a very big subject. You will need to cover a lot of information. It will be much easier to write about 'waterway pollution in Australia' or 'air pollution in Brisbane'.

QUESTION B - How Are You Going To Find Appropriate Information?
After looking at the sites suggested above you might have some ideas or you might still not know what to write about. Maybe you have a topic that interests you but the links don't help you. You will need to do a search.

Conducting a search
Searches can be both rewarding and frustrating. There is lots and lots of interesting information out there. The problem is how to quickly find sites that interest you.

You probably have your favourite searche engine. A useful one is Google Australia.

HINT 1 - Be as specific as you can.
Try the following search exercise.
If you want information about Melbourne Zoo and you search for zoo you will get thousands of sites; Google gave129,000,000 matches. If you search for Melbourne zoo you will get fewer sites and they will be more relevant to your needs. Google gave 2,820,000 matches. The first few were exactly what I wanted.

Try it now. Do a Google search for global warming. How many sites did you find? (You can find the answer on the blue bar across the top of the page.) Now do a search for global warming Adelaide. How many sites did you find?

As well as being specific, you need to be very careful with your spelling. If you make a mistake the search engine will search only for the word as you spelt it. For example, if you write Melbun zoo, you won't get many useful matches!

HINT 2 - Use these symbols to help your search + - "  "
a. Try this experiement. First use Google and do a search for a person named Pearl Elizabeth Collins.
Did you find many people with that name? What did you find?

Now do a search for "Pearl Elizabeth Collins" It looks like the same search, but this time you have quote marks ""
Were the results the same? What difference did that make?

You probably found that in the first search you found the words 'pearl' 'Elizabeth' and 'Collins' but not necessarily altogether. When you use quote marks you probably found only entries for a person named Pearl Elizabeth Collins. When you use quotation marks, the computer searches for the words in the exact order you have written them.

b. Try this experiment. Use Google and do a search for cola.
What did you find?

Now do a search for cola -coke. (no space between - and coke).
What did you find?

You probably found that in your first search you found lots of sites about coca cola, but in your second search there were no sites about coke.

c. The + symbol works in a similar way. If you want to ensure that your search includes something, use this symbol.

QUESTION C - How Do You Know If The Information Is Reliable?
Some of the information out there on the net is put out by governments or businesses, some is put out by interested groups and some of it is put out by the kid next door. So while some of the information is reliable, some of it is not. You need to think about where the information comes from and what the writers' interests are.

1. Click on the this website. What is the name of the organisation or person who put the page up?

2. Click on this website. What is the name of the organisation or person who put the page up?

3. Think about these questions.

Do you think that you can rely on the first site to give you all the facts?

Do you think you can rely on the second site to give you all the facts?

How could you use these sites for research?

4. Have a look at the White House sites.

Click this one. Have a quick look.

Click the second one. Have a quick look.

Click the third one. Have a quick look.

One of these sites is the real White House Site. Two of them is area pretend White House sites. Which is the real one?

5. Think about these questions.

Why would people put up sites that pretend to be something else?

How can you decide if a site is genuine or not?

You can see that there are a number of issues to consider when finding information on the Internet.

6. Have a look at this site. Print out the page, read it and take notes of the points you consider to be most useful.

7. Discuss the ideas with the class.

Is there anything else that you need to think about when you are considering using information from a Web page.

Do you think that the guide gives useful information?