Introduction to using Google as a tool for academic research.

1. G-EN111 COLLEGE RHETORIC II
Researching on the Web
Techniques and Strategies
Bruce Clary, McPherson College, McPherson, Kansas

2. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Many search engines are available…
• Yahoo.com • DogPile.com (meta
search)
• Bing.com (Microsoft)
• Yippy.com (cluster view)
• Ask.com

3. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
…but Google is the king of all search
engines.

4. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
How Google works

5. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
How Google works
• Googlebot

6. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
How Google works
• Googlebot
• Indexer

7. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
How Google works
• Googlebot
• Indexer
• Query processor

8. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
How Google works
• Googlebot
• Indexer
• Query processor
• Page rank

9. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
What matters in your query?
See Basic Web Search at Google.com

10. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
What matters in your query?
• Every word matters
See Basic Web Search at Google.com

11. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
What matters in your query?
• Every word matters
• Word order matters
See Basic Web Search at Google.com

12. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
What matters in your query?
• Every word matters
• Word order matters
• Capitalization does not matter
See Basic Web Search at Google.com

13. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
What matters in your query?
• Every word matters
• Word order matters
• Capitalization does not matter
• Punctuation does not matter
See Basic Web Search at Google.com

14. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Google’s principal operators

15. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Google’s principal operators
• The default is AND

16. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Google’s principal operators
• The default is AND
• Use OR for either term (instead of both)

17. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Google’s principal operators
• The default is AND
• Use OR for either term (instead of both)
• Use double quotation marks (“”) for exact
phrases and words, e.g., “video games”

18. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Google’s principal operators
• The default is AND
• Use OR for either term (instead of both)
• Use double quotation marks (“”) for exact
phrases and words, e.g., “video games”
• To exclude terms, use minus (-) instead of NOT,
e.g., [webbooks -laptops]

19. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Additional operators in Google

20. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Additional operators in Google
• Use the wildcard (*) to fill in blanks, e.g., [pujols
batted * in 2004]. The * operator works only on
whole words, not part of words.

21. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Additional operators in Google
• Use the wildcard (*) to fill in blanks, e.g., [pujols
batted * in 2004]. The * operator works only on
whole words, not part of words.
• site: restricts hits to pages in the given domain,
e.g., [operators site:google.com]

22. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Additional operators in Google
• Use the wildcard (*) to fill in blanks, e.g., [pujols
batted * in 2004]. The * operator works only on
whole words, not part of words.
• site: restricts hits to pages in the given domain,
e.g., [operators site:google.com]
• link: lists webpages that link to the specified
webpage, e.g., [link:www.mcpherson.edu]

23. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Additional operators in Google
• Use the wildcard (*) to fill in blanks, e.g., [pujols
batted * in 2004]. The * operator works only on
whole words, not part of words.
• site: restricts hits to pages in the given domain,
e.g., [operators site:google.com]
• link: lists webpages that link to the specified
webpage, e.g., [link:www.mcpherson.edu]
• define: provides definitions

24. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II

25. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Formulating your query

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AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Formulating your query
• Keep it simple

27. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Formulating your query
• Keep it simple
• Use the words that are most likely to appear on
the page

28. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Formulating your query
• Keep it simple
• Use the words that are most likely to appear on
the page
• Be specific. The more unique the word is the
more likely you are to get relevant results

29. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Think about using context terms
• Want data about video game addiction?
[“video games” addiction database OR statistics
OR index ]
• Want more academic treatments of your subject?
[“video games” addiction bibliography OR
“works cited”]
OR…

30. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Use Google Scholar

31. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Google’s corpora and filters
• Corpora allow you to restrict your returns to a
certain type, e.g., Images, Videos, News, etc.
• Filters allow to restrict your returns by location,
time, and other factors.

32. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
The most critical step for research on
the Web is…
Evaluating Source Credibility

33. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Authority
• Is there an “About” page?
• Is it clear who the authors are of the Web page,
or who is responsible for it?
• What gives them their authority or expertise to
write?

34. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Accuracy
• Is there good reason to believe that the
information on the site is accurate?
• Are the facts documented?
• Is the site free of careless errors, misspelled
words, and poor grammar?

35. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Objectivity
• What is the author’s point of view?
• What is the purpose of the site?

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AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Currency
• When was the information on the page originally
written?
• Has the site been kept up-to-date?

37. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Value
• Who links to this site? Tip: Use Google’s link:
operator.
• Does the site offer anything informative, unique,
or insightful?

38. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
OR … Use the SEER Rubric
• Use the tips above—e.g., using Google’s link:
operator to evaluate Authoritativeness—with the
rubric posted in our Resources folder