Start with what you know about the subject. Write down the keywords and related terms. If you have been given any information about the topic, high light the keywords and keyphrases on the sheet. Or if it does not belong to you, then write them onto your sheet of paper or key them into your processing software. Take a good look at the references cited within the paper / article / information sheet, these are a great way of thinking laterally about the title and subject matter of your research. Why were these items cited by the author? Where can you find the information to see for yourself if there is anything else that can be gained from reading the information? And just as importantly – when was the information written and in the case of Internet based research material / articles and information when was the information found and downloaded from the Internet. Chances may be good the information may no longer be there if the download time was months or years ago.

If there is a particular piece of information you would like to find, but the item is no longer at the address cited by the article you are currently reading, you can still find it. One of the best ways to locate the information on the same site is to go backwards along the address and / or use the search function to see if the author has been indexed within the site.

Of course typing a couple of words into a search engine may also give you the information you need – eventually. But believe me, this way is quicker.

If you intend to dive straight into the “net” and try your luck with internet pot luck, then there are a few simple search techniques you can use.

Always add the quotation marks around a group of names you want to find together. For example “online searching” “project management” “time management” “online research” ensures you get results based on these words together. Simply typing them in as separate items means you will get results with both words in the answer – somewhere, but not necessarily in the order you want or need.

You can also use the OR command (always type in upper case) as with the following examples:
project OR time management
online searching OR research

search engines automatically add the “and” command to the remaining word.

One thing to remember with the Internet – anyone can be an Internet author and publisher and probably has so always be on the look out for opinion, bias and hearsay and always cite your results.