Focus Questions Key Word Brainstorming Search Groups Internet Search Tips

1. YOUR LOI

2. QUICK REVIEW/REMINDERS…WHAT INQUIRY
ISN’T…1) Reporting
2) Research a question you already know the answer or to which you
are not open to ALL information.
3) Research that only skims the surface
4) Research that follows a straight line
5) Research that doesn’t produce new questions and knowledge.
6) Planning an argument
7) Hunting for a Single Answer
8) Focusing your Search on Opinions
9) Binary Thinking
10)Focusing on One Perspective (Bias) – Perspective Can Mean
Solutions, Ideas, Policies, Concerns… Not Just Opinion

3.  Ex. From Studio Work (Standardized Testing)--
 What are they meant to accomplish?
 How has their use risen in recent decades and why has it risen?
 How has their use been affected by NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND?
 What are some examples of standardized tests and when are they
used?
 How does testing differ in private schools or alternative education?
 Does it correlate with negative learning outcomes?
 Does it correlate to positive learning outcomes?
 Do educators think they are helpful or hurtful? Researchers?
 Are they really associated with Attention Deficit Disorder?
 What are the alternatives for measuring learning?

4. BRAINSTORMING FOCUS
QUESTIONS
1. FIRST-- Write your LOI in a few concrete sentences (with any changes you have made). Explain what the issue is and
what you want to discover...
2. NEXT-- List at least 8 specific questions to begin your research. You may start with questions you already have and
then add from there. You need these in front of you for the next activity.
 DIVIDE YOUR QUESTIONS TO FOCUS AREAS TO HELP GENERATE MORE IDEAS. Here are some ideas--
1. History of the Issue
2. Current Situation or Examples-- Events/Problems/News
3. Questions about People Involved
4. Questions about Organizations
5. Specific Terms or Phrases you don’t know
6. Current Policies or Laws
7. Types of Information (Studies, Interviews, Statistics)
8. Wondering Questions– How? Why? When? Who? What?
9. Important Groups Involved in the conversation (Researchers, Scientists, Lawmakers, Educators, Parents,
Politicians, etc.)
10. Questions about the Reasons or Motivation of Certain Groups

5. KEY WORD BRAINSTORMING
FOR YOUR LOI
STEP 1
Pull out and list the search terms you see (as many as
you can think of).
You can also consider words that are often appearing as you
read (common vocabulary, names, and terms) and words in
your smaller questions.

6. STEP 2
List as many synonyms for
any of those words as you can
think of.
Try to increase your list by at
least 6 words.

7. List as many specific terms, names,
or examples that correlate to your
LOI as you can think of.
Try to increase your list by at least
4 words.

8. List as many general terms
that correlate to your LOI as
you can think of.
Try to increase your list by at
least 4 words.

9. CREATE GROUPS OF TERMS
(SEARCH SENTENCES)
 Look for ways those words can be grouped together and
regrouped to get different results.
 Learning to do this is one way to learn how to use the discourse of
the internet and search engines.
 It will only produce the words and groups you provide.
 It will not offer synonyms. Search engines cannot read your mind.
Like any other machine, they respond to your move.
 You are essentially learning to “speak” to the search engine.
 It can’t find what you need unless you, first, figure out how to tell
it what you need.

10. Think of different ways you can group
these words together to create different
search results.
Write at least 8 search sentences (2-4
words) that focus on different questions
you listed. You may add new words if
you need them.

11. 1. Avoid evaluative terms– good, bad, right, wrong, effective, ineffective, etc.
2. Add source types and domains to your search (documentary, .org)
3. Add a “-” to remove domains and words from your results (-.com, -documentary, -blog, -teen)
4. Add quotation marks for exact phrases that you need to search for verbatim.
5. Avoid common words (stop words) and punctuation unless searching for a specific phrase
inside quotes. [Ex. a, the, which, that, of] Both are typically ignored… but not always; this
can mess up your intended results.
6. Search base words only (walk not walks or walked, cat not cats.)
 Exception... Gerunds (verb spelling used as a noun) should be used with exact spelling
(Walking, Running, Swimming).
7. Order search sentences from general to specific in the search box will maximize your
Autocomplete so that you can get new sentences and ideas.
8. Include a tilde (~) in front of a word to return results that include synonyms.
9. Use the (OR) or (|) to return results with either of two terms. Ex. result outcome will
return pages with both result and outcome, while result | outcome will return pages with
either result or outcome.
10. Find Related Sites -- Ex. related:www.youtube.com can be used to find sites similar to
YouTube.