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Primary Research Hub

http://research.uwcsea.edu.sg/primaryresearchhub

Websites

 

Learning how to find the very best websites for your research is a skill worth developing.

 

WebPath Express and LinksPlus

Try WebPath Express and LinksPlus, are services the school subscribes to.  They search sites that are suitable for students and identifies findings by grade level

WebPath Express (Dover)

WebPath Express (East)

LinksPlus

Using Key Words

Keywords are the keys to unlocking information on the Internet. Each keyword gets you closer to the information you are looking for. 

As you look for information: 

  • Try to imagine the exact answer you are looking for.
  • What keywords do you hope to find?
  • Try to use terms that are commonly used and that are absolutely essential to your research question. 

A group of terms is called a search string. Try building your search one term at a time, just as you would add beads to a string. You don’t need to add a + or the word and between the terms, but you must leave a space between each term and the next. 

Have a look at the search strings on the right. The key thing to notice is how the number of search results (webpages) found changes as you develop the search string.

What are Boolean Search Terms?

Boolean search terms allow us to filter our search results so we are more likely to find the websites that are useful to us.
 
The basic Boolean search terms are:
 
AND - which combines two or more keywords/phrases (e.g. apples AND oranges)
 
NOT - which removes specific keywords/phrases (e.g. fruit NOT oranges)
 
OR - which shows combined results for two or more keywords/phrases (e.g. apples OR oranges)
 
"___" - which searches for a specific phrase (e.g. "apple pie")