10. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
What matters in your query?
• Every word matters
See Basic Web Search at Google.com
11. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
What matters in your query?
• Every word matters
• Word order matters
See Basic Web Search at Google.com
12. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
What matters in your query?
• Every word matters
• Word order matters
• Capitalization does not matter
See Basic Web Search at Google.com
13. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
What matters in your query?
• Every word matters
• Word order matters
• Capitalization does not matter
• Punctuation does not matter
See Basic Web Search at Google.com
15. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Google’s principal operators
• The default is AND
16. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Google’s principal operators
• The default is AND
• Use OR for either term (instead of both)
17. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Google’s principal operators
• The default is AND
• Use OR for either term (instead of both)
• Use double quotation marks (“”) for exact
phrases and words, e.g., “video games”
18. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Google’s principal operators
• The default is AND
• Use OR for either term (instead of both)
• Use double quotation marks (“”) for exact
phrases and words, e.g., “video games”
• To exclude terms, use minus (-) instead of NOT,
e.g., [webbooks -laptops]
20. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Additional operators in Google
• Use the wildcard (*) to fill in blanks, e.g., [pujols
batted * in 2004]. The * operator works only on
whole words, not part of words.
21. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Additional operators in Google
• Use the wildcard (*) to fill in blanks, e.g., [pujols
batted * in 2004]. The * operator works only on
whole words, not part of words.
• site: restricts hits to pages in the given domain,
e.g., [operators site:google.com]
22. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Additional operators in Google
• Use the wildcard (*) to fill in blanks, e.g., [pujols
batted * in 2004]. The * operator works only on
whole words, not part of words.
• site: restricts hits to pages in the given domain,
e.g., [operators site:google.com]
• link: lists webpages that link to the specified
webpage, e.g., [link:www.mcpherson.edu]
23. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Additional operators in Google
• Use the wildcard (*) to fill in blanks, e.g., [pujols
batted * in 2004]. The * operator works only on
whole words, not part of words.
• site: restricts hits to pages in the given domain,
e.g., [operators site:google.com]
• link: lists webpages that link to the specified
webpage, e.g., [link:www.mcpherson.edu]
• define: provides definitions
26. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Formulating your query
• Keep it simple
27. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Formulating your query
• Keep it simple
• Use the words that are most likely to appear on
the page
28. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Formulating your query
• Keep it simple
• Use the words that are most likely to appear on
the page
• Be specific. The more unique the word is the
more likely you are to get relevant results
29. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Think about using context terms
• Want data about video game addiction?
[“video games” addiction database OR statistics
OR index ]
• Want more academic treatments of your subject?
[“video games” addiction bibliography OR
“works cited”]
OR…
31. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Google’s corpora and filters
• Corpora allow you to restrict your returns to a
certain type, e.g., Images, Videos, News, etc.
• Filters allow to restrict your returns by location,
time, and other factors.
32. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
The most critical step for research on
the Web is…
Evaluating Source Credibility
33. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Authority
• Is there an “About” page?
• Is it clear who the authors are of the Web page,
or who is responsible for it?
• What gives them their authority or expertise to
write?
34. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Accuracy
• Is there good reason to believe that the
information on the site is accurate?
• Are the facts documented?
• Is the site free of careless errors, misspelled
words, and poor grammar?
35. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Objectivity
• What is the author’s point of view?
• What is the purpose of the site?
36. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Currency
• When was the information on the page originally
written?
• Has the site been kept up-to-date?
37. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
Value
• Who links to this site? Tip: Use Google’s link:
operator.
• Does the site offer anything informative, unique,
or insightful?
38. G-EN111 COLLEGE DESIGN
AR340 WEB-BASEDRHETORIC II
OR … Use the SEER Rubric
• Use the tips above—e.g., using Google’s link:
operator to evaluate Authoritativeness—with the
rubric posted in our Resources folder