If you are a professional or academic writer, you need to be a savvy internet searcher if you are to excel since the internet is your primary source of information. Every writer today is up to speed with internet search methods. Even so, writers can benefit greatly using a few useful tricks when searching the internet. These include:
- Use Specific Terms:
When searching for information on popular search engines, you will be amazed by how many search results you will get for any particular niche. Sometimes, these results number into millions. To narrow down your options, use search terms that are not only specific but also unique.
- Learn the use of Minus Operator Sign:
At times when searching the net using terms with multiple meanings, you will get totally unexpected or irrelevant results. For instance, if you are researching an apple, the search engine results will also include Apple results in reference to the mobile devices manufacturer company. To eliminate these irrelevant results,you should use the minus operator (-) to define your terms. For instance, you could write apple- fruit.
- Put Quotation Marks for Phrases:
As a good writer, you have probably read extensively in multiple disciplines both online and offline. Even though you might not retain everything you read or remember when you read it, certain phrases and quotes stand out. When writing a paper and you want to use one of these phrases, it can be tough to track the source down on the internet if you do not know how to search properly. To make things easier, use quotation marks when typing the phrase in the search engine. The search engine will return only pages with the exact words. Of course, you should get the phrase right.
- Avoid Punctuation and Common Words:
Words such as ‘a’ and ‘the’ are referred to as common words and search engines ignore them. Many popular search engines also ignore punctuation. Hence, you should eliminate these from your search terms, unless you are searching for a specific phase or quote from a certain source.
- Capitalization and Suffixes:
You should drop the suffixes when entering your search. Normally, it is best to enter a base word to avoid excluding relevant pages. For instance, enter ‘walk’ not ‘walked’ or ‘bird’ not ‘birds’. In addition, most search engines cannot distinguish between small letters and capital letters. Hence, unless you are searching for a specific phrase, do not waste your time.
- Take Advantage of Auto Complete:
Google was the first to introduce this useful feature but other search engines have followed suit. Auto complete saves you time and effort since it completes words or phrases for you automatically. It also offers useful suggestions to streamline your search terms.
- Look at your Browser History:
As you research through many pages, you might quickly dismiss some as irrelevant only to realize later, they can actually be useful on your paper. Instead of scratching your head trying to remember what the page was, just go to your browser history and locate it.
Author Bio
Simon is an avid blogger who loves sharing his writing secrets with his readers. He finds a lot of inspiration from http://essayforme.com/.