Unit 1 Lesson 4 – Tips for searching for good sources efficiently

This document provides tips for how to conduct more efficient and effective Google
searches.

Google is a useful place to start some initial research. But the internet is vast and it’s
important to be able to research efficiently.
1. Read the advice below on some strategies for searching more efficiently.
2. Highlight any strategies you rarely use and would like to use more often.
3. Put these into practice to help you find good sources efficiently in your future
research tasks.

Situation 1: Imagine your research topic is gamification. Only typing gamification into
Google is not very helpful because it will give you very general results, and often millions
of search results. So how can you narrow it down, and find more focused and specific
articles?
Tip: Look at the general definition of the word. Use this definition to identify better key
words to search for.
Gamification = the process of adding game elements or game-like features to an activity –
in business or education - to encourage engagement and participation.

Situation 2: Imagine you want more information about game elements for your
gamification topic, but you don’t want any information about games and any information
elements; you specifically want information about game elements.

Tip: Make Google search for specific fixed expressions using quotation marks “ ”
Situation 3: Imagine there are multiple different ways of expressing an idea. For example,
only typing game elements into Google might mean that you miss articles that used
synonyms for those words instead.

Tip: Make Google search for synonyms of your key words using the symbol ~

Situation 4: Imagine your Google search is showing you lots of articles on topics you are
not interested in, for example searching for “game elements” shows you lots of articles
about manga, but you do not want to read about manga.
Tip: Make Google eliminate articles on an unwanted topic using the symbol –

Situation 5: Imagine you want to find articles only from a particular time period.
Tip: Go to Google’s advanced settings and select the time period you are interested in to
conduct a more efficient search.

Situation 6: Imagine you want to find articles only from a particular type of source or you
want to find articles only from a particular site.
Tip: Use a site search, using site:
This searches for articles on “gig work” only in the magazine Wired at wired.com:

This searches for articles on “gig work” only in the newspaper SCMP at scmp.com:

This searches for sources intended for educational use:

This searches for sources intended for government use:

This searches for HK-based sources: