Searching to Focus

Selected Links

Most writers agree an important part of the research process is the way it modifies our thinking about an issue. As you research, consider the parallels between your thinking about your project and your the ways you look for information. If you conceive your project too broadly or if you search the Web too bluntly, you're going to receive mixed results.

We searched AltaVista with the term religion. The returns we got ranged from class pages to church information to sociological essays. Try the search and see how mixed the results are likely to be.

It may be necessary to browse through some of the more general results in order to get a feel for what some of the major issues are. But part of this process should be geared toward sharpening your research angle. Once you have a tighter angle, there are a few additional tips for getting just the right information.

As a way of focus both your research angle and your search strategies, try articulating your research project with a pair of specific terms. If you know that you're interested in the influence of religion on child rearing, then you might try searching by combining terms like

religion and children

religion and parenting

One strategy is to come up with a list of potential search terms. As you develop your list, consider alternative terms, synonyms, or specific items related to the topic. For instance, instead of using religion as a key term, you might use church. You might think about a specific aspect to narrow your search--querying for something like

scientology and parenting

baptist and parenting

Another useful strategy is to exclude search terms. If, for instance, your search for scientology was returning a number of items related to medicine, but you were more interested in general attitudes about parenting, then you could exclude those items from your search. The image below shows the reduction in returns that occurred when we excluded medicine from the search.

The search for scientology and parenting but not medicine brought back one tenth the results. Different search engines allow you to combine and exclude terms in different ways, so familiarize yourself with the setup before you submit your query.

The strategies for narrowing your searches can parallel the way you focus your thinking about your research projects. Initially, you may need to wade through lots of information, but your goal should be to sharpen your focus as you work. Once you latch on to a topic, explore alternative ways of looking at the issue. As you do so, think of alternative search terms. Use these specific terms and try different search engines. Finally, be sure to save and document the materials that you find. Even though an item might not seem worthwhile at the time, it can be a lot easier to retrieve it from your diskette or hard drive than to track it down on the Net. Additionally, since resources change on the Net, saving files may be the only way to retrieve them. Keep these strategies in mind as you think about your research projects and perform your searches and you should get good results.

If you're ready, move on to the search engines.