Use Boolean search terms
Most search engines allow you to add special words to your search that limit the results. These words are AND, OR and NOT.
Including AND between two words means that you will get only results that include both words. This helps eliminate many irrelevant results.
Example: Deforestation AND Africa
Including OR between two words means that you will get results that include either word. This is good when you have two words that are synonyms or close in meaning.
Example: Safe water OR clean water
Placing NOT before a word means that you will get only results that do not include that word. This helps eliminate many irrelevant results.
Example: Terminator NOT Schwarzenegger
You can also search for a whole phrase by placing it within quotes. This means you will get only results in which those words occur in that order.
Example: “Child labour”
Use the Triangle Method
To confirm that your information is accurate, locate at least three independent sources that point to the same answer. This is called the Triangle Method. Check where your sources got their information, to be sure that all of them did not get it from the same source.
Example: Three different sources on the number of child workers in India:
Three of these sources suggest a number in the range of 100 million, so we can accept the number as reliable.
Use Different Search Tools
It is important to use different types of search tools because no search engine captures more than 16 per cent of the entire Internet (all search engines combined capture less than 50 per cent of online information). Also, each search engine gathers and groups information in its own way.
Be careful when using Wikipedia as a source. Although it has been found to be as accurate on some topics as the Encyclopedia Britannica, its user-generated format means that hoaxes are often played, some of which persist for hours or even days¾making Wikipedia a good example of a source that needs to be checked against other sources.
Various search tools and sources of information include:
Example: Top search results for “AIDS in Africa” include:
Google: HIV and AIDS in Africa. The epidemic of HIV & AIDS in Africa: includes info on the impact of AIDS on Africa, country profiles, and answers to frequent questions.
www.avert.org/aidsinafrica.htm.
Wikipedia: The HIV/AIDS epidemics spreading through the countries of Sub-saharan Africa are highly varied. Although it is not correct to speak of a single African epidemic, Africa is without doubt the region most affected by the virus. Inhabited by just over 12% of the world’s population, Africa is estimated to have more than 60% of the AIDS-infected population. Much of the deadliness of the epidemic in Sub-Saharan Africa has to do with a deadly synergy between HIV and Tuberculosis.[1] In fact, Tuberculosis is the world’s greatest infectious killer of women of reproductive age and the leading cause of death among people with HIV/AIDS.[2] (Continues)
