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TOPIC: Controversial Topics

Why Internet Resources?

You may find a wide variety of information from the Internet. Carefully choosing and using the Internet resources can be very beneficial to your research.

Be aware that information on the internet is not regulated for quality or accuracy, so it is important for you to evaluate the source. Try the evaluation criteria on "Evaluating Sources" to decide when it is appropriate to use that information.


Web resources can be web pages and documents on the internet that provide useful information. 

Examples include: 

  • Information on government agencies and non profit organizations
  • Current information on weather, news, or sport scores
  • Videos, podcasts, blogs, images, statistics, etc.

Web Searching Tips

Some basic search tips:

  • Use quotation marks when searching for a phrase e.g. "genetic engineering".
  • Use the I'm feeling lucky button to find the most popular website on a topic.

Search website titles:

  • You can make a search more precise by limiting your search words to the title of the page e.g. allintitle:climate change

Search specific sites or domains:

  • You can limit your search by adding site:edu to locate your search terms at .edu sites only.

Search for specific document types:

  • You can search for specific document types by adding the command filetype: to the end of your search. This allows you to search for pdfs, PowerPoint presentations, Excel files and others e.g. filetype:pdf, filetype:ppt, filetype:xls

Find synonyms:

  • Putting a tilde in from of a word will run a search for it and its synonyms
  • ~sun will retrieve results including solar

Find a definition:

  • Use the command define: nanotechnology to locate a definition

Exclude terms (-):

  • Use - before a term to exclude it from search results
  • twins -Minnesota

Advanced search option:

  • you can combine many of the above commands if you start your search in the Advanced Search screen instead of using the basic search option

Web News and Newspapers

General Websites

Government Websites

U.S. Crime Research

U.S. Health Research

U.S. Demographic Data

U.S. Education Data