Title: Unit 3: Search Engines vs. Electronic Databases
Course: Advanced Composition for the Digital Age SP14 > Section: Unit 3: Search Engines vs. Electronic Databases

What's the difference? You'd better find out.

Web Searching
Estimated Completion Time: 3 hours
(While it may not seem like much, this is one of the most important units for what comes up later.)

Unit 3 Web Searching: Objectives

By now you've certainly used a search engine to find something that you were looking for. Unfortunately, it's likely that you are probably not using your searches to their full potential. It also may be likely that you are unaware of the many Electronic Databases you have access to and why you should know and care.

Step 1: First we'll take a look at search engines in Unit 3: Internet Searching

Step 2: Now it's time for a crash course in Electronic Databases Info

Step 3: What about determining the reliability of your resources? This link will let you know how to check for credibility. There are also terms like Validity and Logic when dealing with arguments that you'll want to understand before moving on to your assignment.

Regardless of which source you choose you'll want to look for some of the following:

- Is it recent?
- Does the author identify him/herself? Provide contact info?
- Provide a source for the information?
- Is it free of spelling & grammatical errors?
- Does it match with what you currently know and what other sources say?

Step 4: Show me what you've learned Unit 3: Assignment: Search Engine vs. Electronic Databases

Step 5: Now that you can find good information quickly, it's important that you know how to cite your sources. (If you already know how then this will be easy! ;-)) Review: Citing your sources and take the quiz linked at the bottom of that page. It cannot be stressed enough how important this will be as you move forward.

Participation: Unit 3: Search Engine vs. Electronic Databases

Move on to Unit 4: Social Issues & The Media

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