Seccion Elástica

7.0 WORKS CITED/FURTHER READINGS

Eyisi, Joy. (2004). Common Errors in the Use of English. Onitsha: Africana First Publishers Ltd.

Griffith, Kelley. (1982). Writing Essays about Literature. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishers, 1982.

Lenburg, Jeff. (2009). Guide to Research. New York: Facts on File Inc., 2005. MLAHandbook for Writers of Research Papers 7^thed. New York: Modern Language Association of America.

Stark, Racheal. Research and Writing Skills Success in 20 Minutes a Day.New York: Learning Express, 2003. Web. 25 Jan. 2011.

UNIT 3: INTERNET RESEARCH 1.0 Introduction

2.0 Objectives 3.0 Main Content

3.1 Understanding the Internet 3.2 Problems of the Internet

3.3 Research information on the internet 3.4 Internet Search Engines

3.4.1 Advantages of the Search Engines 3.4.2 Disadvantages of the Search Engines 3.5 Metasearch Engines

3.5.1 Advantages of the Metasearch Engines 3.5.2 Disadvantages of the Metasearch Engines 3.6 Subject Gateways

3.6.1 Advantages of the Subject Gateways 3.6.2 Disadvantages of the Subject Gateways 4.0 Conclusion

5.0 Summary

6.0 Tutor-Marked Assignment 7.0 Works Cited/Further Readings

1. 0 INTRODUCTION

The Internet is one of the scientific revolutions of the 20th and 21st centuries. It has affected the way things are done in our world. Today, anyone who does not make the use of the Internet is described as living in the past. Indeed, one of the areas that the Internet has offered us tremendous assistance is in the area of research. A researcher who makes good use of the internet has the whole world in his hand during the period of his research. This unit guides you on some of the tips to make a successful use of the Internet in your research.

2.0 OBJECTIVES

At the end of this unit you should be able to:

i. understand the meaning of internet

ii. know the problems associated with researching on the internet iii. know the type of material available for your research on the internet iv. know the research options available on the internet and how to use them.

3.0 MAIN CONTENT

3.1 Understanding the Internet

The internet (otherwise known as the World Wide Web, abbreviated as www) refers to a network of computers that are globally linked to one another through satellite and telephone. The internet collects information from a linked computer and makes same available to other computers that are scattered world-wide. The Internet provides an easy way to share information between people that are separated by space and time. Researching through the internet can be a hard and difficult process if the researcher lacks appropriate know-how about how to approach the internet. The internet is said to contain an estimated 3 billion documents not indexed in any standard vocabulary or by standard Library of Congress subject headings. So if you do not know what you want, you will not get very far. On the other hand, one who knows the rudiments of the internet finds it as the most simplistic way to research.

Self-Assessment Exercise 3.1 1. What is the Internet?

2. Why do you consider the knowledge of the internet significant to a researcher?

3.2 Problems Associated with Internet Research

Despite the advantages that the internet offers, a researcher should be quite careful with the information he accesses on the internet. This is because there are a number of problems associated with researching with the internet. Such problems include the following:

1. Not all the information on the internet are “reputable, credible, accurate, or reliable in terms of content.” (Lenbourg 2005). Thus, it is advised that the researcher avoids personal web pages as they are more prone to inaccurate and misleading information.

2. Internet information is often overloaded and may provide the researcher with the problem of choice and selection.

3. There is also the problem of information move or site change. When this happens, the researcher finds it difficult to locate a previously marked information.

Self-Assessment Exercise 3.2

What are the three problems associated with internet research?

3.3 Research Information on the Internet

A researcher who has decided to make use of the internet for his research should realize that, even though the internet offers easy access to information that are shared by users, there are limits to what are available on the internet. A good knowledge of these will help the scholar not to pursue a wild goose chase in the process of his research. Thus, information that cannot be got from the internet should be looked for elsewhere. For a guide, Zainudin Johari of the Unity

College International provides a list of items that a researcher can find from the internet for purposes of his research. They include the following:

i. Company reports and financial information, ii. Conference proceedings,

iii. Contact details for other researchers,

iv. Laws, government announcements and parliamentary debates, v. News and current affairs,

vi. Databases of reference materials,

vii. Places where you can discuss topics and ask for help,

viii. Reference sources like almanacs, dictionaries, encyclopaedias, etc.

Self-Assessment Exercise 3.3

List five research information one can access on the internet.

3.4 Internet Search Engines

The search engines enable the researcher to search for internet materials using key words which describe the information one is researching. They are best suited for providing information when one is searching for words that are less common, topics that are narrow, and when one wants to view a large number of pages. The search engines constantly update themselves through the activities of computer programmes (bots or spiders) which constantly search the internet for new information. Once new information is found, the programmes index them in a central database for references. Some of the internet search engines include: Excite http://www.excite.com;

Googlehttp://www.google.com; AltaVistahttp://altavista.com.

3.4.1 Advantages of the Search Engines The following are the advantages of a search engine:

1. Provision of a wide coverage of the Web.

2. Orderly arrangement of materials according to their relevance to your research.

3. It is flexible, as it offers the researcher the opportunity to refine and enhance his research.

4. At times, they offer links to related materials.

5. Sometimes they offer a directory listing of popular sites.

3.4.2 Disadvantages of Search Engines

The following are the disadvantages of search engines:

1. May return too much information that may be unmanageable to the researcher.

2. Have less capacity to sort out information.

3. Different engines have different information. This means that the researcher must search in more than one search engine.

4. The search engines do not have similar rules for refining search.

5. Some search engines, at times, include advertisements as search results.

Self-Assessment Exercise 3.4

List five advantages of a search engine.

3.5 Metasearch Engines

The Metasearch engines provide a researcher with information that is contained in many search engines at once. The Metasearch Engines do not search information directly on the web. Rather they send the search to many search engines at once which locate the information and return same to the meatasearch engines. As a rule, always begin your internet research with the metasearch engines as they provide you with overview of what are available. Some of the well-known metasearch engines include: Dogpilehttp://www.dogpile.com; Search.com http://www.search.com; and Metacrawlerhttp://metacrawler.com.

3.5.1 Advantages of Metasearch Engines

1. They provide search in many search engines.

2. They are able to eliminate duplicate records or pages.

3. They are able to sort pages into topics.

3.5.2 Disadvantages of Metasearch Engines 1. They often return too much information.