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MUI1020HF: Civic Engagement and Economic Development

A research guide for MUI1020 students completing their case study assignment

WEB RESEARCH STRATEGIES

While a search of the journal, government and grey literature will be essential for your assignment, the Web will also be an important source of information and insights for you.

Consider using these tips and strategies to get better results faster.

ADVANCED GOOGLE SEARCHING

Take advantage of the Advanced Search features of Google to surface more relevant results.

These features include:

  • Phrase searching, e.g. "civic engagement", "innovation districts"
  • Search operators, e.g. civic AND (participation OR engagement OR democracy OR capital), civic AROUND(5) engagement
  • Document type limits, e.g. filetype:pdf
    • This can help you find reports and briefings that might otherwise be buried in your search results.
  • Restricting your search terms to the title words of pages searched, e.g. intitle:'search term'
  • Restricting your search to certains kinds of website or even a specific website, e.g. site:toronto.ca, site:.edu
  • Filtering results by date to retrieve only pages or documents uploaded recently - use the Tools option for this feature

For other ideas on how to get better results faster using Google, see the link below.