Harray English 1A: Searching & Evaluating Resources

• More Search Terms = Fewer Results: 

Start with a simple search, and add search terms to focus your results.

• Search with just the important words (keywords), don’t use sentences:

Example: “social mobility” AND education; instead of ‘does education level affect social mobility?’ 

• Quotation Marks - Use quotation marks to tell the computer to keep the words together: 

Example: “social mobility,” “trigger warnings” 

• Too many search results? Combine keywords using the word AND to narrow your results to more specific aspects of your topic: 

Example: “income inequality” AND immigration; education AND income AND happiness

• Still not enough search results? Combine similar keywords using the word OR to broaden your search results

Example: DACA OR Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals

Evaluating Resources (the CRAP Test)

Currency: 

• When was the resource created?
• Is it new enough for your topic?

Reliability: 

• Is this fact or opinion? 
• Does the author provide references? Are the references good?

Authority: 

• Who is the author? 
• Are they an expert?

Purpose:

• Is the resource biased? 
• Are they trying to sell you something? 
• Trying to convince you?