How To Use Search Engines In Research Project Writing

Recently, I shared a post on how to get project topics in Nigeria. Today, I want to help you have a better understanding of how to use the Search Engine in research project writing.

My interest is on making sure that you have desired results when you make use of the search engines, of which Google.com tops the list.

The question you enter in the search engine box is made up of words, letters, alpha-numeric, symbols etc., but the search engine sees them as ‘keywords‘. Research has shown that most people make use of group keywords than separate keywords.

Group keywords are said to be your query in its entirety e.g. “problem of indiscipline in Ebonyi state“; while examples of “separate keywords” are – indiscipline, pre-marital sex, nationalism etc.

The difference is that when it comes to rating, you will have better results with the latter than the former while sourcing for an idea, pieces of literature and reviews. Reason being that the separate items tend to attract more targeting articles than the group question (query).

Hope this is getting clearer? Well, in time you will get to understand more about these terms. Just like the spider and its web, the spider crawls on its web to have food that its web had attracted. The search engine on the web is not exempted from this spider action.

The search engine crawls on the web, looks for keywords on the titles of articles, its contents, relevance to the entire internet practice etc.

WHAT TO DO

Ask your question the right way – you must not key in your question/topic exactly the way it is asked or your exact project topic.

Even if you do and get your results, you might be a victim of YOU COPIED because many other students have access to the same material.

From your question, select the keyword(s) for your search. E.g

“Events that took place during Ebonyi state university 3rd convocation”

EBSU events
3rd convocation

Key in the first, then the second; you have different results. Is it not?

Good! Which is more relevant to your search? (That is the way it works-after all, the search engine did not study English Language but only obeys command from the algorithm settings).

Don’ts of Research Project Writing

Plagiarism refers to an academic theft, it is the process of copying, and stealing of another author’s idea, language and its presentation as one’s own idea. The issue of plagiarism is particularly troublesome among young researchers who often indulge in these activities. It is a crime in the world of research punishable by law.

In order not to fall prey, when writing your research :

Do not copy and paste.
When you quote an author ensure to use a quotation mark, as it shows that the idea is not entirely yours.
Do not forget to reference the author.
For instance, assuming you are conducting a research on the factors that influence the prevalence of teenage pregnancy in Ezza local government Area of Ebonyi State and you want to borrow another authors idea word to word Robinson, 2014 noted that “ poor upbringing, lack of good moral foundation and the social economic status of parents are among the factors which contribute to the prevalence of teenage pregnancy among adolescents, and this has a negative implication for the place of women in the political, social and economic spheres of the society”
Paraphrase instead of copying.
Paraphrasing entails the restatement of a piece of writing, passage or text without losing its original meaning rather giving the meaning in another form. Young researchers often erroneously think that when you just change few words in a passage it becomes you own idea. In paraphrasing one is to read the passage or text carefully, then understand the message it tried to pass, then rewrite it in your own idea, ensuring that the original meaning was not altered rather presenting same meaning in different form. For instance, if you want to paraphrase the quotation below :

Original

Robinson, 2014 noted that “poor upbringing, lack of good moral foundation and the social economic status of parents are among the factors which contribute to the prevalence of teenage pregnancy among adolescents, and this has a negative implication for the place of women in the political, social and economic spheres of the society”

Paraphrased

According to Robinson (2014), the factors which purport the prevalence of teenage pregnancy among adolescent are morally and socio-economic inclined, in the sense that the kind of ethical and moral value that families adopt imparts positively or negatively on the young adolescent. He further noted that the socio-economic relevance of parents to a great extent impart positively or negatively on the young adolescent life choices and this status quo has far reaching consequences for the relevance of women in the society with regards to the social, political and economic spheres of the society.

In Summary

Do not rely heavily on secondary data, try to gather data from the primary source
Be original and
Consult current and up to date literature published in reputable journals as these will add more academic prowess to your work.

GOODLUCK

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