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CHD 216 - Early Childhood Programs, School, and Social Change (Alexandria)

Direct comments to aanderson@nvcc.edu

Useful Websites

Web Searching

Here's how to craft a better search to get fewer and more relevant results in Google:  

  • Use quotation marks around 2 or more words that need to be together.
          "mental illness" inclusion
  • Limit your search to a specific domain, such as .edu, .gov, or .org
          military families children site:.org
          military families children site:.gov
          military families children alexandria va site:.gov
          military families children "fairfax county" site:.gov

More information on advanced Google searching and Google Scholar.

How to Evaluate Websites

Evaluate websites that have information you would like to use in your assignments. 

For a quick, initial evaluation, look on each website for an "About Us" page to answer some of the following questions:

  • Who is the author?        
  • What are his/her qualifications?
  • Why was the website created?
  • When was it last updated?
  • How reliable is the information?

Learn More About How to Evaluate Websites

Wikipedia and Academic Research

    

How Wikipedia CAN be useful in the beginning stages of research:

Check mark A basic overview of your topic.
Check mark Important names, vocabulary and keywords related to your topic.
Check mark Table of contents for some entries, helping you to understand how your topic can be organized.
Check mark

References and other websites that may be helpful (though you will need to evaluate them to be sure).

Why NOT to use Wikipedia for academic research:

X  The accuracy and authority of a Wikipedia article cannot be verified.