Engl 127 Research Writing: Social Sciences (Modzelewski)

Searching the Web

(Click on video to open in another window)
Source: "Searching Google Effectively" by Joshua Vossler, UWF Libraries, Educational use.

Key Web Resources

Useful Websites

The following web sites (and search engines) are a place to start, though they offer just a hint of what's out there.

Statistics & Government Resources

Select Research Centers /Public Policy Think Tanks:

Specific Social Issues:

Why websites?

browser search bar with http://www. in it

image source below

The web is a great resource for:
  • Government information
  • International sources
  • Up-to-the-minute and local news
  • Local resources
  • Organizations involved in an issue
  • Statistics
  • Opinion
  • Images and video
  • and much more

Image Source: "Internet1" by Rock1997 is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

Don't Settle!

Effective Web Searching

Improve your search results with site-specific searching: 

Limit to:

  • Government websites: site:.gov
  • Educational institutions (but watch out for student work!) site:.edu
  • Non-profit organizations (and some businesses) site:.org
  • Specific industries and many news sources are commercial enterprises. site:.com

Evaluate websites with the CRAAP test

Evaluating your Sources

Here's one other tool for evaluating not just websites, but all information! Download the document below to see a list of questions that will help you figure out how to determine if your sources are quality ones.