Navigating the Internet through times of technical advancement, social media, and globalization is never easy, even when you know precisely what you are after! Since we are facing a plethora of online resources that are often questionable, it is crucial to determine the reliability first and check for the original source.
It helps to obtain original information, which is especially important when conducting research or wishing to cite an author in an assignment. As a rule, maximizing online resources can be achieved via different means as it will depend on the objectives set and the type of information being sought.
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Essential Tips for Students to Maximize Online Resources
Here are some useful tips for students to boost their studies using online resources.
Working With Keywords
One of the best ways to maximize online resources is to use relevant keywords that will help to narrow down the search results that you are going to get. If you are planning to compose an assignment related to the Black Lives Matter social movement, you can add words like “personalities,” “origin,” or “history” to narrow things down a little bit.
The same is true for the cases when you wish to locate sources available in print. For such a case, it’s possible to add ISBN or “in print” keyword. Alternatively, it’s possible to add Netflix or in the media to let Google or any other search engine of choice focus on the results related to films and multimedia resources. Think about keywords that identify your type of preferred sources.
Google Search Operators Trick
The use of advanced search operators will help to locate specific resources. As a rule, most people do not know about them, yet it’s a neat trick worth checking. The basic search operator would include something like “allintitle: Cats vs Dogs.” It means that the search results will include websites that will have an exact “Cats vs Dogs” title with no variations.
If you want to narrow things down to a specific website, you can use “site:mit.edu new courses” to see what new courses are available and see all the mentions by MIT. Finally, remember to use “AND” and “OR” to help Google sort the resources and provide you with a more logical outcome. In practice, it will help to eliminate unnecessary resources or websites that you do not really need!
Using ChatGPT
While some educators will frown upon it, the use of ChatGPT can help you receive a basic summary of a book and get the list of characters to help you explore things further. Now, if you are still feeling stuck, worry about originality, and cannot complete your work on time, it’s possible to approach experts with a typical write my essay no plagiarism message and get things done properly.
Remember that while you can check things in Google or use any artificial intelligence tool, it’s still better to talk to a trained human being and get things checked twice!
Locating Research Documents
Another interesting trick worth knowing to maximize your research potential is to narrow things down to documents and research papers as you navigate the Internet. This solution is quite simple, yet not many students seem to know about it!
All you have to do is to add “PDF”, “research”, “DOI”, or “presentation” keywords to your subject and see what documents are available. It will provide you with a list of results that focus on original documents that you can download and use for reference purposes. The chances are high that you will be able to deal with research documents and not some websites where something is paraphrased!
Social Media Research
Do not ignore social media platforms! Even though Instagram and Twitter may not provide sufficient information or something that can be considered reliable, it’s still an important way to expand things. The majority of entrepreneurs and research projects are represented online.
If you wish to take things further, consider looking through social media groups on Facebook by following research organizations or personalities related to your studies. This way, you can locate interviews or first-hand information by asking questions. It can help you to keep your assignments unique and add more to the otherwise limited types of writing.
Quora and Reddit
These social platforms are ideal when you seek a book on a certain topic or wish to find out personal opinions about some movie or an event taking place in another country. Most students use Quora and Reddit to ask socio-cultural questions or when they need a native speaker to translate some slang phrase.
In most cases, it will bring things to another level and help you engage in a fruitful discussion. Unlike search engines, it helps to receive genuine human input that can help keep things inspiring and fun by meeting new people and working in a global environment.
Knowing Where to Look For Information
With the emergence of AI-based tools like ChatGPT, many students worldwide tend to limit themselves to condensed bits of information that are being delivered in an instant. Unlike Google or any other search engine, most learners receive the answers and use them for their studies and research work.
It takes away from analysis and research as information is rarely revised or updated. It poses a serious problem since students do not use available resources and analytical potential to the fullest. Since the talk is about online resources, one has to take things further!
Conclusion
The trick is to know where to look based on a type of data that is necessary. Starting with scientific research databases like Google Scholar, JStor, PubMed, and Science Direct to places like EBSCO and Web of Science, it is possible to search the databases according to publication date, problems researched, or basic keywords.
It is not only a great way to save valuable time but also a guarantee that you receive original and peer-reviewed sources that will help support your main thesis and a list of arguments.