Finding a source you can defend
| English | Chinese | Pinyin |
|---|---|---|
| keywords | 关键词 | guān jiàn cí |
| operators | 运算符 | yùn suàn fú |
| authority | 权威性 | quán wēi xìng |
| currency | 时效性 | shí xiào xìng |
| bias | 偏见 | piān jiàn |
| primary source | 一手资料 | yī shǒu zī liào |
| secondary source | 二手资料 | èr shǒu zī liào |
Anyone can find a page
- The skill GAC005 assesses is finding a source you can defend, not one you can find.
- A search result's position says nothing about its accuracy. Results are ranked, not verified.
- Three moves do most of the work: better keywords, operators, and a check on the source.
A result near the top of the page has been checked for accuracy by the search engine.
Results are ranked, not verified. Ranking reflects links and behaviour, not truth.
Keywords, not sentences
- Search with the keywords 关键词 that must appear in a good answer. Drop everything else.
- Do electric cars really pollute less than petrol cars overall? returns opinion pages.
- lifecycle emissions electric vehicle comparison returns studies, because those are the words a study uses.
Which search is more likely to return research-grade sources?
Those are the words a study would use. A question phrased as a sentence matches pages written as answers to questions.
Operators narrow the field
- Operators 运算符 refine a search: quotation marks force an exact phrase, a minus sign excludes a word.
site:restricts results to one domain —site:govfinds government reports whose authors and methods are stated.- Two operators usually beat ten more keywords.
Which operator restricts results to a single domain?
site:gov, site:edu, site:org — the fastest way to filter by the kind of publisher.
The question: do electric cars produce less carbon dioxide overall?
Search one: the whole question as a sentence. Result: blogs and news comment.
Search two: lifecycle emissions electric vehicle comparison site:gov. Result: reports with named authors, a stated method, and a date.
The second search is not cleverer. It is more specific about what a usable answer looks like.
Match each test to the question it asks about a source.
All three, every time. A source can be authoritative, current and still funded by an interested party.
You can cite either a study or a news article about that study. Which do you cite?
The article usually drops the conditions, and the headline number is the one the researchers hedged most.
Judge before you cite
- Authority 权威性: who wrote it, and what do they know?
- Currency 时效性: how old is it, and does that matter for this claim?
- Bias 偏见: what does the author want you to think, and who paid for it?
- A primary source 一手资料 is the original report of a study; a secondary source 二手资料 describes it.
Write the citation the moment you copy anything. A quotation, a figure, an image — all of it. Almost every accidental plagiarism in this programme starts as a note nobody labelled at the time.
Do not cite a news article about a study when you can cite the study. The article is a secondary source, it usually drops the conditions, and the number that reaches the headline is the one the researchers hedged most.