Nonfiction writing > How to Find Anything on the Internet (well, almost)
Published WordWorks Magazine Winter 2002/03 (final published version)
The secret is that there is no secret—just understanding the resources and knowing your tools.
When I gave this “how-to” workshop at the Surrey International Writers’ Conference <www.siwc.ca> last autumn, I walked into the room holding a book I’d just bought at the book fair, Writing the Breakout Novel. I’ve got a row of books on writing in my bookcase. What I want is the secret handshake to writing success. What I get—and need —are tools and techniques.
There is of course no secret to writing a breakout novel or for that matter to writing a business plan the corporate client won't hate. Similarly, there's no magic formula for effective and efficient online research. Just tools and techniques: how to ask the right questions, how to find the best resources, tips on how to use search engines effectively, how to know whether the information is trustworthy, and how to keep track of your research. And finally—when to pay other people to do it for you.
The first step in doing research online doesn’t involve the Internet at all. It ’s framing your questions.
frame (EXPRESS) verb [T]: To express (an idea), esp. after careful consideration, or plan a course of action. Example: “The interview would have been more productive if the questions had been framed more precisely.” Cambridge Dictionaries Online <http://dictionary.cambridge.org>
At the risk of revealing nothing but bad habits here, I admit that whenever I can get away with it, I frame my questions like I prune my fruit trees—not at all, or too little and too late. If you’ve ever had an apple tree, you know the neck-cramping work involved in pruning and what happens if you don’t: weak trees with small, diseased fruit. Luckily, framing questions will make you a better researcher and writer without putting you in a neck brace. Use the journalist’s tool of asking who, what, where, when, why and how.
Recently I was asked to do a high-level critical analysis of a childcare social mapping manual still in the draft stage.[1] Of course I said yes. Of course I know nothing about the subject. And of course I added time for research to my quote. Just a few of my first questions included:
As I read the manual, my list of questions grew, as did the categories of questions: social mapping, childcare, project planning, mapping software, government regulations, and more.
It’s important to revisit your framing questions over and over. Most of the time they start out general and become more specific as you go along. For this job, all I needed in order to start were the general questions; but as usual, I ended up with more detailed questions than I strictly needed answers for. As you’ll see, those came in handy later.
“The process of posing and answering such questions—the analytical process—is one of trial and error. Learning to write well is largely a matter of learning how to frame questions.” Writing Analytically, by David Rosenwasser and Jill Stephen (Harcourt Brace, 2000)
Deciding where to look in order to answer your framing questions is the same process of asking who, what, where, when, why and how. Again, this will change over the course of your research. This list is adapted from Find it Online: The Complete Guide to Online Research by Alan M. Schlein (3rd edition, Facts on Demand Press, 2002).
Even if the direction of your research is obvious, writing down the questions is a good exercise. In this case, the author was a good place to start. My list of questions kept me on topic, and later, allowed me to compare what she said with what I was finding out from my research.
My first stop for research is usually my favourite search engine <www.alltheweb.com>. You could argue that it comes closer to living up to including “all the web” than any other, with its two billion plus unique documents indexed, as of mid-2002. Like its nearest rival, <google.com>, it is always out of date. All search engines are—and they cover only a fraction of what is available out there. The reason is simple: when you use a search engine, you aren’t searching the Internet, you are searching the search engine’s database. Not only are pages being added to the Internet much faster than they can be indexed; much of what’s out there is “invisible” to search engines and can only be found through specialized databases (like your library’s catalogue) and subscription services.
To get the most out of your research time, by all means use search engines, but also get a print Internet directory and replace it every few years. One of the best I’ve seen for writers is The Internet Handbook for Writers, Researchers, and Journalists (McGuire et al., 2002/03 edition, Trifolium Books). Newbies to the ‘net will appreciate how the authors dip deep into the basics, while established users can go directly to the links they need. It also includes a chapter on managing and verifying online information.
Even if you intend to do your research the old-fashioned way, you can still use the Internet to save time. Search the online catalogue at your library and put books on hold for pickup later. Search <amazon.ca> for the books you need, print the results pages for reference and then see if they’re available locally by visiting your favourite bookseller’s website—at least for their phone number, services and hours. Find those elusive experts and how to get in touch with them by searching directories of experts (free and fee-based), university sites, magazine sites and other likely places.
In addition to helping with fact-driven research, a search engine is great for getting a general feel for a subject and for finding out things and relationships you didn’t know to look for in the first place. Whatever the purpose, there are tricks to getting the best results fast.
One of the oldest expressions to do with computers that can be repeated in polite company is “Garbage In, Garbage Out.” It’s still correct. When doing searches, what we type into the search engine are called keywords. For the critical analysis I was doing, it would be natural to type “childcare” into the search box first. In <alltheweb.com>, I got 1,788,287 results. In <google.com>, 1,160,000. “Social mapping” got 1,172,082 and 792,000 respectively.
Sound impressive? It’s not. It’s nearly useless. Past your first look around, your goal is to retrieve the one or two dozen or so web pages that collectively contain exactly the information you need, not the other few hundred thousand that show up in a typical search. To accomplish this, you need to come up with sets of precisely descriptive keywords and then combine them to refine and limit the search. There are two commonly used methods of doing this: Advanced Operators and Boolean Queries.
If any terms are designed to instill fear in the hearts of already information-drenched writers, it’s these. Thankfully, it’s easier than you might think—and would be even easier if all the search engines did it the same way. They don’t, so be sure to read the instructions. For those search engines you return to again and again, it’s worth learning their peculiarities and how to use their advanced search forms.
Advanced Operators use quotation marks and simple arithmetic symbols to do just about what you would expect:
Boolean Queries do much the same thing but use English instead. They treat quotes the same way as Advanced Operators:
Did I mention peculiarities? For <alltheweb.com>, you can only do Boolean searches from the Advanced Web Search page with “Boolean Query” selected from the pulldown menu to the left of where you type in the search terms.
The University of California, Berkeley, library has excellent tutorials for online searching. See their gateway page at <www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/FindInfo.html>. To find out more about how search engines work, visit <www.searchenginewatch.com>.
Even narrowing your search and being selective leaves you drowning in web pages. Adding to your list of browser bookmarks is the most common way of keeping track. Each project can have its own folder with subfolders for the different types of sites or based on how useful they are. However while this system works fine for gateway sites you’ll return to again and again, it’s not nearly good enough for sorting through and keeping track of the actual results of your search. And that’s not even the worst of it. The main problem with just using links is not being able to find the original material again: the link itself can change as the website is updated, the information can change, often significantly, or it can even be deleted and not exist in any form.
What you need is a snapshot of what you find so that you have easy access to the material and a permanent record of it. More than just being convenient, it’s like an insurance policy—especially if you write non-fiction or business documents.
Many people simply print the web pages much like they would photocopy parts of a book or magazine and then write any additional information such as author and other citation details right on the paper. Sticky notes and highlight pens can flag the important bits. An alternative is to capture the page(s) in Adobe Acrobat and add the extra information as electronic notes and highlights. When done properly, this last method gives you searchable directories of pdf files and has the advantage of maintaining the links. And, of course, you can still print them out.
Using the first method, I end up with already indecipherable citations melting under coffee rings and sticky notes stuck on anything and everything except the papers. As for the second, it’s a good idea I’ll try some day!
I actually use MS Word to keep track of everything—the same program I use to write with. In addition to printing the web page, I copy and paste the content as “plain text” into a separate “research” Word file. With the research sections styled Heading 1 and each reference title styled Heading 2, I can navigate easily through dozens of articles using the Document Map or Outline View. For very long documents, either html or pdf, I’ll save the file from the browser onto my hard-drive and just print out the front pages and the parts I need, and then copy the same to my Word document. The entire project folder needs to be backed up and kept as a permanent record with the paper files.
For each piece, I include in the Word research file:
Anything I need right away is copied to my working document, put in quotes and coloured red so I know it’s copied and not my own words. I add the citation as a footnote. And, I’ve learned to live with my left hand leaning on Control-S for near constant saves. And I back up my work each day.
If you’re doing the work for someone else, ask for and use their citation guidelines for online sources. Otherwise, more is better—and unlike a print citation, you need to add the date accessed and the online source. For example, one of the works I found on how community-based research is done—which was one of the framing questions that grew out of the social mapping set of questions—could be cited as:
Levesque, Peter and Jill Chopyak, “Managing multi-sector research projects: Developing models for effective movement from problem identification to problem solving.” The Loka Institute, 2001. Referenced February 21, 2003 from The Loka Institute at <http://www.loka.org/crn/pubs/Managing_multi-sector.Final.8.2.01.pdf>
See <www.ifla.org/I/training/citation/citing.htm> for much, much more information and some excellent examples.
You’re more likely to believe a prediction in a mainstream scientific journal that the end of the world will come in a few billion years, than you are a street-corner prophet who says it will end on July 31st of this year. First, the source is more reputable. Second, likely the author is too. Third, it fits neatly into what you already know. And fourth—and as slippery as this last one can be, this is the one that will get you in trouble most often—it’s what you prefer to hear.
Evaluating research done online is the same as any research with the difference that it’s very easy to publish a web page—anyone can do it with minimal resources, even a street-corner prophet.
For more information on evaluating online information, see <www.virtualsalt.com/evalu8it.htm> and <www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html>.
"You may have heard that ‘knowledge is power’… the truth
is that only some information is power: reliable information.… If
we make a decision based on wrong or unreliable information, we do not have
power—we have defeat.”
Evaluating Internet Research Sources” by Robert Harris (www.virtualsalt.com,
November 1997)
For many of us, hitting a pay-per-use or subscription-based site means moving on quickly. Pay money, you say! Calm down…. consider that paying for access is both the cost of doing business and a big time saver. These sites have already either done the primary research for you or compiled information that would take you days to track down otherwise—if you could at all. They range from business intelligence sites, to professional or academic journals offering electronic articles at a price, to databases of articles from hundreds of magazines. Check your Internet directory for the best ones in your target field; often they will have a free trial subscription.
A bigger step is paying someone else to do all or some of your research. But, you say, research is part of writing and writing is what we DO! Well, the author of the childcare social mapping manual paid me to do research by hiring me to write the critical analysis of the draft manual. I saved her days of time she didn’t have and provided a fresh set of eyes. To find people for your project, consider professional researchers (check your main library and local university) or other freelancers you know can deliver.
Oh, and she liked my analysis so much she’s hired me to do a substantive edit and the curriculum development for onsite workshops, including computer-based training. Those extra framing questions will come in handy… and I know there will be lots more.
Surrey International Writers Conference <www.siwc.ca>
Cambridge Dictionaries Online <http://dictionary.cambridge.org>
< www.alltheweb.com> search engine
< www.google.com> search engine
< www.amazon.ca> online bookseller
< www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/FindInfo.html> tutorials for online searching
< www.searchenginewatch.com> on how search engines work
The Loka Institute website <http://www.loka.org/crn/pubs/Managing_multi-sector.Final.8.2.01.pdf>
< www.ifla.org/I/training/citation/citing.htm> for information on citations and examples.
< www.virtualsalt.com/evalu8it.htm> on evaluating online information
< www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html> on evaluating online information
[1] the subject of project was changed in the article for confidentiality reasons.
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