As I continue my junior theme, I have come to the realization that many aspects of the research process are very challenging. Also, I have come to find that although the internet is a huge blessing, as it gives us immediate access to endless amounts of information, it can also be a curse. Teachers have always told me that the internet can be a big black hole, and can suck you into it to the point where you are no longer looking at valid information, however I never really realized how accurate they were until this point in my research process.
When researching my why question, Why do men's sports get significantly more funding than women's sports?, I came across many different articles and statistics, many of which directly contradicted each other. I really had to pay attention to what sites I was getting my information for, as I realized it was often hard to judge whether or not information I found was valid.
One tip I found for research through this process: always go through a database or somewhere you know will link you to valid articles, do NOT just type in a few words into google. Google does not sort it's results by validity, so the first hit could be a totally random website. Always, always, always start from a place that you know will give you valid results. Oftentimes schools have links to valid starting points, just like the New Trier Library does.
So, I guess this blog is less of an informational piece of writing, and serves more as a warning. From my experiences in the past few weeks, what I cover in this blog is probably the best piece of advice I can offer anybody doing research on something.
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