CTW1 - McIsaac - Fall 2025: Home

Tip #1: Searching a website from the Google search box. 

• Why it's helpful: Using Google site search avoids having to go to sites individually, and also circumvents site search engines on individual sites that often do not work very well.
• How to use it: Enter your search in the box followed by site:[URL]
• Example: climate change site:wsj.com

Tip #2: Finding recent articles

• Why it's helpful: This filters out everything that is too old, leaving what is current - essential for current events research.
• How to use it: After you do a search, look for the Tools drop down on the far right. Click Anytime and select a more recent date range. Warning: This filters by the date something was posted, not necessarily when it was originally created. Look for the creation date on every document you find.

Simple Google searches are very effective. An example is: climate anxiety site:nytimes.

You might find it useful to make your search more complex to see if you get different results. You would do this by linking synonyms together with OR inside parentheses, and linking the parentheses together using AND.

Here's is an example:

(anxiety OR worry) AND (climate change OR environment OR global warming) site:nytimes.com

This would search for articles about climate anxiety and because it is a different method of searching, it might give you more or different results.

• New York Times
• [topic] site:nytimes.com
• [topic] AND (environment OR climate change OR global warming) site:nytimes.com
   
• Wall Street Journal
• [topic] site:wsj.com
• [topic] AND (environment OR climate change OR global warming) site:wsj.com
   
• Articles written by experts to explain topics (news analysis)
• [topic] analysis site:nytimes
• [topic] AND (environment OR climate change OR global warming) analysis site:nytimes
   
• Opinions expressed by a person or group (such as a newspaper editorial)
• [topic] AND (opinion OR editorial OR op-ed) site:nytimes 
• [topic] AND (environment OR climate change OR global warming) (opinion OR editorial OR op-ed) site:nytimes
   
• News from many sources at the same time
  [topic] (environment OR climate change OR global warming) [click the news tab]
   
• Tip: Filter for recent articles
  Always use Tools->anytime and choose a recent date range

When you need more  background and context on your topic, here are some good resources. They publish longer-form in-depth research reports on topics of current interest. These organizations are called research institutes or "think tanks". These are excellent sources of up-to-date research. Check their "About" page to make sure they say they are nonpartisan, like the ones below.

You can visit their sites or search them directly from Google. For example,

[topic] site:pewresearch.org

Some general search tips for finding research reports from NGOs, think tanks, and nonprofit research institutes

• [topic] site:.org
• [topic] site:.edu

Tip: Always read the About page to understand who they are, why they are conducting the research, and whether they have potential biases

US government

• [topic] site:.gov

California state government

• [topic] site:.ca.gov