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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