Researching Tips

When you are working on your assignments, or needing to find information, researching skills are key! Here are some tips to improve your search results.

Read more to find out about:

• Refining your search results

• Wildcards

• Recording and managing your references

• Getting support from your Learning Centre

1) Have a question in mind

Before you start searching for research, make sure you have a question in mind. What question do you want the answer to? This will help you keep organised when finding your information.

2) Refine your search

Search engines all use similar logic, by understanding this, you can get the most out of your search results!

Use the plus symbol (+) to tell the search engine that the search term must be included.

You can also use the minus symbol (-) if you wanted to leave a search term out.

Example: if you wanted to search 'Apple' but with no mention of the iPhone you would search '+Apple -iPhone +fruit'

Use quotation marks (") to quote full phrases, this will help you if you are wanting to find a song title but only know a few lyrics.

Use Wildcards - Search for alternate spellings by using a question mark.

Examples: Globil?ation = globilsation, globalization

Colo?r = colour or color

3) Record and Manage your References

It's important to stay organised when researching. Make sure you keep a note of all the websites, books and materials you access when researching.

You can do this in Excel, Word, your notes app. As long as you store these somewhere you can remember and can go back to, it's up to you!

This will save you time in the long run and also allows you to go back to the resources you used when researching.

Get support from us!

Your Learning Centre is here to support you with finding information on your assignments. Create a help ticket to a member of our AskLRC Team. Or you can email us at asklrc@stcg.ac.uk, or you can also visit your college Learning Centre on-site for support from our helpful and friendly team!