WHY IS USING GOOGLE EFFICIENTLY IMPORTANT?
Using Google efficiently allows you to find reliable sources from credible authors, limit the amount of time spent searching, and maximize your learning experience.
THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN FINDING SOURCES
- Where/who is this information coming from?
- What are the article’s and author’s intentions?
- Is there any type of bias affecting this article?
- Is this source credible?
- Does it provide the information I want?
- Is this article recent? (Within the last 5 years)
TIPS TO MAKE SEARCHES MORE EFFICIENT
Instead of writing long sentences in the search bar, try binding important keywords. This can be achieved by adding ‘AND’ or ‘OR’ between keywords. For example:
Instead of typing: What are the symptoms of COVID-19 infection?
Try: COVID-19 AND symptoms
EXAMPLES OF CREDIBLE SEARCH ENGINES
- Google Scholar
- PubMed
- NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information)
- NLM (National Library of Medicine)
- SAGE Publishing
EXAMPLES OF CREDIBLE WEBSITES
Look at the website address in the address bar. Does that address end in either .gov or .edu? If so, it’s likely credible!
- CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention)
- WHO (World Health Organization)
- NIH (National Institutes of Health)
- FDA (United States Food & Drug Administration)
- United States Census Data
- Health Departments (i.e. Arizona Department of Health Services)
EXAMPLES OF UNRELIABLE WEBSITES
Although the information is easy to access on websites like Wikipedia or Quora, these sources are not reliable. Also, avoid pulling information from websites that end in .com or .net.
- Wiki Answers
- Wikipedia
- New York Times (and any other news source such as Washington Post, Apple News, CNN, Fox News, etc.)
- Personal blogs
- Social media sites (including Facebook, Reddit, etc.)