Argumentative Outline Essay

With the advent of technology comes the increasing use of search engines for different purposes. Web search engines such as Yahoo! and Google are effective tools for internet research and finding web-based articles and information. Furthermore, hard-to-find and old written information may most probably be available over the internet through keying in on the search engine. This new trend can help create better opportunities and challenges in the field of academic research.b. Purpose: This paper seeks to present evidences that using web search engines for academic purposes are beneficial to students as online sources are readily available for reading and creating analysis. Additionally, definition of a web search engine, different types of academic search engines, and arguments on the benefits of using search engines for academic research are provided. c. Thesis statement: Academically, web search engines can help in doing research projects and create analysis on each research as searching for information over the internet can lessen the time and effort needed as compared to traditional research, thus, more time and effort will be spent on reading the online materials and in further analyzing the topic. II. Body a. Background Information i. Definition of a web search engine. A search engine is a tool composed of massive databases where an internet user can find information. It is composed of a computer program called spider, crawler, or bot, which searches through the internet to be able to collect the requested information (Jato and Oresiri 055-060). When specific keywords are searched, relevant information will be displayed on the results panel of the search engine. ii. Different types of academic search engines: These search engines are essentially useful for conducting researches related to academic studies and investigation. Academic search engines include Google Scholar (http://scholar. google. com) wherein all disciplines can be searched in several formats such as papers, articles, books, information retrievals (IRs), and open access materials. Advanced search options aid in limiting the searches for a specific author or publication. Another type of academic search engine is the Microsoft Academic Search (http://academic. research. microsoft.  com) wherein mostly sciences can be searched. Similar with Google Scholar, advanced search options can limit the searches by author, field of study, journal, and other related fields. This is for the purpose of finding the information in the quickest way as possible. The more filters are set, the more specific the search will be. There are still other academic search engines available online. b. Evidences to Support Claim i. Based on the results of the study conducted by Gary Small, a university lecturer at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Teena D. Moody, Ph. D. , a senior research associate at Semel Institiuite, and Susan Y. Bookheimer, Ph. D. , a psychiatry and bio-behavioral sciences university lecturer at the Semel Institute, the rising computerized technologies have the possibility that they have positive physiological effects and potential advantages for middle-aged men and women, as well as older adults. According to Small, brain activities are being stimulated through series of internet searching. The participants involved in the study showed similar brain actions when reading, but had also showed activities in areas which are related to complex reasoning (Claburn). c. Opposing View i. Nicholas Carr, questioned the implication of search engines in an individual’s mind through his article, â€Å"Is Google making us stupid? † From the article, he emphasized that Internet alters the mind. According to the researched performed by the University College London scholars, students who were accessing research sites to look for e-books, online journal articles, and other written information developed a â€Å"skimming activity† habit in which the researcher jumped from one source to another and did not actually read the article (Carr). III. Conclusion a. Using web search engines, it provides me more time for my analysis compared to using traditional research methods, because I can buy reading materials as fast as I have found them in the search engine. I don’t believe that technology will replace people in my career field, or that technology will replace the human element in any field. This is because human intelligence is still necessary in order to create such technology, and without it, the structure of the field will never be complete. The use of technology, for example in writing, is only used as a guide and as a way to save time to further work on writing rather than waste time looking for research materials that may or may not be useful for analysing the topic.