Imagine wanting to find a poem about something and you only remember a certain quote from the poem, but you are certain that you know it by heart. Now comes the problem because the part you remember matches a lot of stuff that people can say and your search results come up with millions of things that are not your poem. Then, someone comes and puts the part you remember in quotes and voila, the results are there, in 0,50 seconds.

Furthermore, imagine you want to place your first bet but know nothing about betting. If you knew about websites such as betminded.com, you would be all set. However, if you don’t, it would require a lot of research online. Amazed as you are with the power of the internet, you note that your research skills are not that great and you embark on the quest to making them better. Here is how you should start.

Learn to Use Search Engines

Using a search engine seems like a simple thing to most people, but many, when trying to use them when they actually need them, find out that there’s a little bit more to it than simple typing of ungrammatical phrases. There are little tricks to using search engines which you can learn to improve your research skills.

Less time spent with searching means more time spent with the object of the search, which translates to productivity. Search engines differ, however, so you should learn the tricks which work with your preferred search engines.

Discarding Irrelevant Things

Many times when you want to research and learn about something, you will run into stuff irrelevant to your topic. Learning what is irrelevant to your topic is necessary, but also discarding that, as soon as possible. Reading an article about exercise does not need to contain unnecessary photos of a person flexing or showing off or information about supplements. If you want to learn something, you need to get to the core and discard the clutter.

Choose Good Sources

If you’re writing a master thesis and you need to have sources listed, you shouldn’t really post tabloids or online news sites as a source. Wikipedia, unfortunately for many people, is also not an option. You should find actual research done on the topic of your thesis, and then reference that as a source. You can find good sources by using the search engine, again. For example, Google Scholar offers only scholarly articles from universities and other institutions with credibility.

Seek Out Examples of What You Need

If there’s a specific topic that’s really troubling you, then seeking out some example can help ease the pain of learning. Examples can give you an idea or point you in the right direction. They do not even need to solve things for you, but rather just help you find a better understanding of how things are supposed to look. That alone helps you start your project off with a good mindset and a mental template.

Research skills are very important and you can improve them every day, by learning how to use search engines or how to make good out of all the credible sources out there. Improve your research and your product will be much better.