Writing in college has changed a whole lot over the years. Now everyone has a personal computer that they can do mostly all their work on for the paper. It is almost not necessary to go to a library and open a book since everything can be searched and found online. The problem is that it can be hard to find reliable sites that you can trust and use in your paper. In Marc Prensky’s Research paper “Search vs. Research” he spells out the differences between searching and researching. I think most of the time what we do is just searching but researching is more refined and you have to know what you’re looking for.
Most classes are going to require some sort of researching and then turning that information into a paper, so being able to effectively and efficient use search engines is a very important skill to have. It can be one that is tough to acquire, but the more you do it the easier it gets. If you’e able to find a reliable resource quickly it can save you a lot of time from aimlessly searching. There are a lot of resources out there, but the key is being able to use them.
Source: http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky-Search_vs_Research-01.pdf