Prof. Rodas guides beginning college students through some basics of internet research. This presentation is prepared for composition students at Bronx Community College

1. Getting Started
with Internet
Research
PROF. JULIA MIELE RODAS
BRONX COMMUNITY COLLEGE / CUNY
FALL 2021

2. Be a smart shopper
• IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR A PAIR OF
SHOES, YOU KNOW YOU HAVE TO USE
SPECIFIC SEARCH TERMS TO FIND THE
SHOES YOU WANT.

3. What kind of shoes are we
looking for?
 Red shoes?
 Sneakers?
 High heels?
Using specific search terms
guides us to the content we’re
looking for.

4. Internet RESEARCH
works the same way!

5. Combine search terms to narrow your hits
Instead of “shoes,” try:
 boots
 hiking boots
 leather hiking boots
 Timberland leather hiking
boots
 Timberland leather hiking
boots blue
Instead of “disability,” try:
 disability and police
 disability and violence and
police
 psychiatric disability
violence police
 psychiatric disability race
violence police

6. There’s more to
Google than just
Google …
GOOGLE BOOKS AND GOOGLE
SCHOLAR GIVE CLEARER ACCESS
TO COLLEGE-LEVEL SOURCES

7. Amazon is also a
surprisingly
useful resource
• A powerful search engine and
access to billions of bytes of
user information helps direct
readers toward similar source
material.
• Reviews and summaries can
help readers get a sense of
content without buying or
reading the whole book.

8. Wikipedia gets a
bad rap …
… but it can be an excellent place to get
started with research.
DON’T
QUOTE
directly from
Wikipedia
articles

9. But … do:
 Skim articles to get a
sense of your subject
 Explore the Reference
and Source lists for
possible research of
your own

10. Tune in next time for …

11. PROF. RODAS SAYS …
THANKS FOR
STUDYING!
Need more
help?
 watch the video of our Zoom
instructional session
 text Julia for a one-on-one meeting
 make an appointment to work one-on-
one with a FREE Writing Tutor