If you're like most people, you want to jump straight into searching for information once you have a research assignment. However, if you go through a few steps first, you'll end up saving lots of time.

Sometimes you start with very specific questions and you're ready to go:
  • Has there ever been an earthquake in Austin?
  • Who invented Velcro?
  • When was the War of 1812?

Get Specific

General Topics


However, often you only have a general topic for a project. Research is almost impossible because you find too much information.

 

In the examples below, the more specific search yielded a more manageable amount of information.

This shows the importance of selecting good keywords that describe your topic. They are the most important part of successful online research.

 

google search for animal rights yields 3,390,000 results




more specific google search for animal rights, product testing, and cosmetics yields 726 results