Tool 5: Researching on the Internet

You can find information about every imaginable subject on the Internet. You have to consider how you want to go about finding the most essential and accurate information about your topic.

Finding information

Jot down keywords about your given or chosen topic on a piece of paper. Try to think what exactly you want to know about this topic.

Examples:

• EDC/HRE;
• Council of Europe;
• minorities;
• democracy.

Combine search terms, for example “medieval town markets”, using quotation marks.

• Which word combinations help you to find the most relevant information about your topic?
  Note down these criteria on a piece of paper.

Checking your information

Because anybody can access the Internet and create information, it’s important to double-check the information you find before you actually use it.

Try to clarify the following problems:

• Can you find this information on other pages on the Web?
• Who made the information publicly accessible?
• What interest could this person or organisation have in making this information publicly accessible?
• Is the person or organisation reliable?

Compare the information from the Internet with information from other sources:

• Can you find the same information in a book, through an interview or through your own experiences?
• Is the information on the Internet up-to-date, comprehensible, more comprehensive than what you can find in a book, interview or through your own observation?
• Which information suits your purpose best?

Saving the information

Once you’ve found a good Internet site that you want to go back to later or that you want to use as a source for your work, make your own personal list of websites:

• Open a separate document.
• Highlight the URL (address).
• Copy the URL by pressing CTRL (control) and C at the same time.
• Paste the URL into the document by pressing CTRL (control) and V at the same time.
• Save your document under “weblist_topic” – for example, “weblist_democracy”.