As you discovered in the Library vs. Internet exercise, using search engines like Google presents the key advantages of the internet in retrieving information: It’s faster than a library search; you get more materials and more content types (e.g., links, images, video, etc.); it’s easier to include or insert gathered data in your work (cut-and-paste, copy-and-paste) without the tedium of having to manually encode text or make your own illustrations; citing references becomes a breeze for online submissions; etc.
The downside to all these is that “faster,” “more” and “easier” do not necessarily mean “better.”
Realize that Googling or retrieving any information online:
- Does not guarantee the accuracy of information gathered;
- Tends to promote laziness or, worse, plagiarism; and
- Is a tool to help develop, and not a substitute for, your personal inputs.
What can you do to improve your work, with search engines as a tool?
- Read what you retrieve. Understand what you read.
- Evaluate the accuracy of the data. Check on the reliability of the source website.
- Attribute sources properly.
- Write more than the amount of material you download. Paraphrase whenever you can.