A search engine indexes Websites. You type in words or phases and a list of sites is returned about your topic. This is a good time to use the graphic organizers you filled out during Step 1.  Sometimes the list does not give you what you expected. Try different words and phrases until you find information about your topic.

Search engines use different methods for searching.  You will want to look at the directions and tips at each site for complete details.  Try Boolify, a tool for learning how to search.  Then try these useful hints and tips for successful Internet searches.

Searching on the Internet

• Use quotation marks – “Mona Lisa” or “I Have a Dream”
• Look for words in the exact order that you enter them – Julius Caesar, Middle Kingdom
• Use the minus sign (-) immediately before a word from search – Vikings -Minnesotata, bats -baseball
• Remember to check your spelling!
• Do not use questions and ignore irrelevant or unecessary words.
• Use keywords – a keyword search is a search for all sources that contain your search words or keywords.  Keywords are crucial to narrowing your search.

Narrowing Search Results – tips to refine your search:

• Placing a plus sign (+ or AND) in a query immediately before a word indicates that the word must be present in every result.  China AND Silkworms China + Silkworms
• Placing an asterisk (*) immediately after a word generates results that contain that word and other words that begin with those same letters.  A query of land* generates results that contain land, lands, landlocked, landmark, landscape, and landslide.
• Placing a phrase within quotation marks (” “) generates results that contain the exact phrase.  “I have a dream”
• Placing a minus sign (-) immediately before a word indicates that the word must not be present in any results.  bats -baseball
• A query with multiple words generates results that contain any of the words, but not necessarily all of them.  China silkworms would give search results as China AND/OR silkworms

FIND – can’t FIND what you are looking for on a website?

• Use the Edit command (one over from Favorites on the toolbar) and pull down to “Find on this page.”
• Type the word you are looking for in the FIND box and you will jump to the word.
• This is a good search technique if you are looking at a document or article that has lots of words and few nonfiction text features (side bars, headings and subheadings, photographs, captions, diagrams, charts, and boldface type.)
• The Early History of China – use the FIND command to search for information about Chinese pottery.