You can retake the quiz as many times as you’d like, but your average score from all attempts will be recorded in the gradebook, so each attempt can help improve your overall performance. For example, if you take the quiz three times and score 3/10, 7/10, and 10/10, your final recorded score will be the average of these attempts: (3 + 7 + 10) ÷ 3 = 6.7/10.
Finding a Needle in a Haystack: Using Effective Research Strategies
Why Is Poverty Worse in Certain Places?
Ever notice how poverty tends to be located in geographic areas, like southwest Phoenix? Why does this happen? What factors cause geographic poverty?
Answering questions like these require research, and research can often feel like finding a needle in a haystack. The sheer amount of information available can be overwhelming, so how do you find credible sources quickly and efficiently? This chapter will provide you with concrete researching skills and hacks that will level up your research game.
Why You Should Care
Effective research skills are essential not just for academic success, but also for making informed decisions in your personal and professional life. Knowing how to find, evaluate, and use credible information helps you become a critical thinker and a knowledgeable contributor to discussions and projects.
Learning Objectives
In this lesson, you will learn to…
- Identify Effective Keywords: Understand how to break down a topic into main concepts and generate a list of relevant keywords and synonyms.
- Utilize Search Strategies: Apply various search strategies, including the use of Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) and quotation marks, to refine search results and locate relevant information.
- Conduct Research on Academic Search Engines: Apply effective search strategies on academic search engines like Google Scholar to find relevant and credible scholarly articles.
- Conduct Research on Popular Search Engines: Utilize advanced search techniques on popular search engines like Google and ChatGPT to refine search results and locate reliable information.
- Develop Reading Strategies: Reduce your stress by using reading strategies to efficiently navigate source content.
Getting Around Google: Navigating Popular Search Engines
Effectively using popular search engines like Google can save you time and help you find the most relevant information. Google uses algorithms to index and rank web pages based on their relevance and quality. When a user enters a search query, Google’s algorithms analyze the indexed pages and return the most relevant results, taking into account factors such as keywords, page quality, and user engagement.
| Pros of Google Research | Cons of Google Research |
| Accessibility: Google provides quick and easy access to a vast amount of information on virtually any topic, making it a convenient starting point for research. | Quality Control: Not all sources found on Google are reliable or credible, so you must critically evaluate the information you find to avoid using inaccurate or biased material. |
| Variety: It offers a wide range of sources, including scholarly articles, news reports, books, and websites, allowing students to explore different perspectives and types of information. | Overload of Information: The sheer volume of results can be overwhelming, making it difficult for students to identify the most relevant and trustworthy sources. |
| User-Friendly: Google’s search engine is intuitive and easy to use, even for those with limited technical skills, which can save time and effort. | Limited Access: Some high-quality academic articles and books may be behind paywalls or require institutional access, limiting the availability of certain resources through Google alone. |
Filter Your Searches
Google research can be a lot easier and more efficient if you use filters to refine your results.
Boolean Operators: Boolean operators are words or symbols used to combine or exclude keywords in a search, helping to refine the results. The main Boolean operators are AND, OR, and NOT (sometimes represented as -).
- AND: Narrows the search by combining terms, showing results that include all specified keywords. Example: geographic poverty AND rural areas.
- OR: Broadens the search to include results that contain any of the specified keywords. Example: urban poverty OR rural poverty.
- NOT (-): Excludes results that contain the specified keyword. Example: geographic poverty -urban (to find results about geographic poverty that do not include urban areas).
Quotation Marks for Exact Phrases: Using quotation marks around a phrase ensures that Google searches for the exact sequence of words, rather than each word individually. This technique is useful for finding specific names, quotes, or titles.
- Example: Searching for “geographic poverty in the United States” will return results where the entire phrase appears exactly as typed.
Site-Specific Searches: Site-specific searches allow you to restrict your search results to a particular website or domain. This technique is helpful for finding information from specific types of sites, such as educational institutions or government websites.
- Example: geographic poverty site: .edu will return results about geographic poverty from educational institution websites.
- Another Example: geographic poverty in Africa site: .gov will return results about geographic poverty in Africa specifically from government websites.
Check Your Understanding
The following quiz is graded.
AI Do’s and Don’ts
AI resources like ChatGPT can be incredibly helpful for generating ideas and finding information. However, it’s crucial to understand that each professor has their own policy about using AI. Some instructors have a strict no-AI policy, while others allow you to use it for certain tasks. If your instructor does allow AI, it’s important you use the tools ethically by verifying the information and giving credit where it’s due.
Here are the AI do’s and don’t for this course:
| DO’S | DON’TS |
| Exploring Topics: Do use AI to brainstorm and explore various topics for essays and projects. It can provide a wide range of ideas and perspectives to help you choose a subject that interests you. You can even use AI for initial research to gather background information. However, make sure to cross-check information with reliable sources to ensure accuracy and credibility. | Relying Solely on AI Information: Don’t rely entirely on AI-generated information instead of conducting your own research. AI can provide helpful insights, but your research should be thorough and involve multiple credible sources. |
| Generating Research Questions: Do use AI to help formulate strong, focused research questions. It can assist in identifying key issues and gaps in knowledge related to your topic. | Avoiding Critical Thinking: Don’t let AI replace your critical thinking. Always analyze and interpret information independently to develop your own arguments and viewpoints. |
| Outlining: Do use AI to help create outlines for your essays. It can assist in organizing your thoughts and structuring your paper logically. | Ignoring Academic Integrity: Don’t use AI tools in a way that violates your institution’s academic integrity policies. Always use these tools ethically and responsibly. |
| Grammar & Phrasing: Do use AI tools to check and correct grammar. This can help polish your writing and make it more professional. It can also suggest alternative ways to express your ideas more effectively and vividly. | Overlooking the Revision Process: Don’t skip the revision process just because AI suggests your work is good. Personal review and feedback from peers or instructors are invaluable. |
| Revision Suggestions: Do use AI for revision suggestions. It can highlight areas that need improvement and offer ways to enhance clarity and coherence. Be sure to use specific prompts that direct the AI tool to offer you advice. For example, you can copy and paste your work into ChatGPT and ask: “I am pasting my essay below. Please review it and provide feedback on its organization. Focus on whether the structure is clear, logical, and easy to follow, and point out any sections, ideas, and sentences that might need reorganization or better transitions. Do not rewrite or reorganize the essay for me—just give me advice on how I can improve it myself.” | Writing Your Assignments: Don’t use AI to write any part of your assignments for you. This is considered plagiarism and is a serious academic offense. When completing your assignments, it is essential that all content—ideas, vocabulary, sentences, and paragraphs—originate entirely from you. Using AI tools such as ChatGPT or others to write any portion of your assignment, including rephrasing your ideas or generating new content, is strictly prohibited. This includes substituting words, rewriting sentences, or producing any material that is not your own original work. If you choose to use AI tools, they should act solely as a resource to help you identify areas of improvement—not as a substitute for your own critical thinking or creative expression. |
Check Your Understanding
The following quiz is graded.
You can retake the quiz as many times as you’d like, but your average score from all attempts will be recorded in the gradebook, so each attempt can help improve your overall performance. For example, if you take the quiz three times and score 3/10, 7/10, and 10/10, your final recorded score will be the average of these attempts: (3 + 7 + 10) ÷ 3 = 6.7/10.
Operating Academic Search Engines
Want access to credible sources with high-quality research? Good news–as a student, you have free access to a ton of academic databases through the SCC library website. The main tool for searching the library catalog and over 160 databases like JSTOR and PubMed–which offer peer-reviewed articles and scholarly research–is OneSearch.
OneSearch Features:
- Comprehensive Search: Searches both the library catalog and over 160 databases, providing extensive research materials.
- Keyword Entry: Enter keywords into the OneSearch box to find articles, books, films, and other materials relevant to your topic.
- Filter Options: Use limiters like “Fully available online,” “Journal Article,” and “Peer-Review” to refine search results and find quality academic content.
- Publication Date Filter: Narrow search results by publication date to access the most relevant and recent information.
- Accessing Resources: Click on the result title or the “Fully Available Online” link to access resources directly through the database.
- Download and Share: Many databases allow users to upload articles to Google Drive, print, or email them in PDF format.
- Physical Books: Information on locating physical books in the Maricopa Community College Libraries is available for items found through OneSearch.
- Support Services: Contact SCC Librarians or use the 24/7 Ask a Librarian chat service for assistance with research and using OneSearch.
Check Your Understanding
The following quiz is graded.
You can retake the quiz as many times as you’d like, but your average score from all attempts will be recorded in the gradebook, so each attempt can help improve your overall performance. For example, if you take the quiz three times and score 3/10, 7/10, and 10/10, your final recorded score will be the average of these attempts: (3 + 7 + 10) ÷ 3 = 6.7/10.
How to Read Academic Articles
Academic articles can be dense and complex, but employing effective reading strategies can help you quickly determine their relevance and understand their content.
Example
While academic articles aren’t always structured the same, they often contain the same elements. Click on the purple question marks to learn more about each component of an academic article.
Tips for Quickly Checking if an Article is Relevant
Yes, reading can be time-consuming, especially when you are in the early stages of searching for information that is relevant to your topic. But here are some tips for stream-lining that process:
- Skim Titles and Subtitles: Quickly scan the titles and section headings to get an overview of the content.
- Visual Features: Look at images, graphs, and tables, which can often convey key results and trends.
- Keywords: Review the keywords listed in the article to ensure they align with your research topic.
- Abstract: Read the abstract to understand the main findings and relevance of the article.
Check Your Understanding
The following quiz is graded.
You can retake the quiz as many times as you’d like, but your average score from all attempts will be recorded in the gradebook, so each attempt can help improve your overall performance. For example, if you take the quiz three times and score 3/10, 7/10, and 10/10, your final recorded score will be the average of these attempts: (3 + 7 + 10) ÷ 3 = 6.7/10.
Bonus Tip
Most academic articles include a section on research methodology: Unless the methods are central to your research, you can often skip this section during an initial review.
Tips for Understanding Difficult Content
Once you determine an academic article is useful, you then face the task of reading the content. The good news is that academic articles are stuffed with top-notch information and compelling insights from experts in the field. The bad news is that these articles are often challenging to read. Since they are primarily intended to be read by other experts in the field, their Lexile score can be very high. Don’t despair–follow these tips for understanding difficult content:
- Highlighting and Note-Taking: Highlight key points and take notes to summarize important information.
- Dictionaries and Thesauruses: Use these tools to understand complex terminology.
- Online Summarization Tools: Websites like SMMRY and Scholarcy can help condense long articles.
- Consulting Review Articles: Review articles summarize current research on a topic and can provide a broader understanding.
- Study Groups and Discussion Forums: Engage with peers or online communities such as ResearchGate to discuss and clarify complex concepts.
- The SCC Writing Center: Free, professional SCC tutors can read articles with you, providing reading strategies, and discuss the content.
By utilizing these strategies and tools, you can effectively navigate and comprehend academic articles, making your research process more efficient and productive.
Conclusion
Mastering effective research strategies transforms you into a savvy information seeker, capable of finding credible sources and drawing well-informed conclusions. By learning to navigate search engines, use AI resources ethically, and manage your sources efficiently, you’ll enhance both your academic and real-world decision-making skills.
Key Takeaways
What are the key takeaways from this lesson?
- Use advanced search techniques on Google to refine your search results.
- Utilize AI resources like ChatGPT ethically by verifying information.
- Navigate academic search engines to find peer-reviewed articles.
- Generate effective keywords to improve your search efficiency.
- Keep track of your sources using citation managers.
- Employ reading strategies to save time and identify key information.
Chapter Quiz
The following quiz is graded.
You can retake the quiz as many times as you’d like, but your average score from all attempts will be recorded in the gradebook, so each attempt can help improve your overall performance. For example, if you take the quiz three times and score 3/10, 7/10, and 10/10, your final recorded score will be the average of these attempts: (3 + 7 + 10) ÷ 3 = 6.7/10.
definition
Peer-reviewed refers to a process in which a scholarly work, such as an academic article, is evaluated by experts in the same field before it is published. This review process ensures that the research is of high quality, free from significant errors, and contributes valuable knowledge to the field. Peer reviewers assess the methodology, accuracy, and relevance of the research, providing feedback for improvement or validation. This process is essential for maintaining the credibility and integrity of academic publishing.
Research methodology is an explanation of how the authors collected, analyzed, and interpreted data in a study. It encompasses the design of the research, the methods used for data collection (such as surveys, experiments, or observations), and the analytical procedures employed to interpret the data. The methodology section of an academic article explains the rationale for choosing specific methods, ensuring the study's reliability and validity. It is crucial for understanding how the research was conducted and evaluating the credibility of the findings.
A Lexile score is a numeric measure of reading ability and text complexity.
Below 200L: Beginning readers
200L-500L: Early readers (elementary school)
500L-800L: Intermediate readers (upper elementary to middle school)
800L-1000L: Proficient readers (middle to high school)
1000L-1300L: Advanced readers (high school and beyond)
Above 1300L: Very advanced readers (college-level texts)