Determine relevant search terms for the type of information your essay requires. Search terms are keywords used by a website search engine to locate data. A clear idea of the information you seek can save you time and energy.
Find the websites needed for your research. Three ways exist to do that. You can type keywords into a search engine, click on an active hyperlink or enter a URL into the address bar of your computer's Internet browser. Search engines produce results that list websites according to relevance regarding the keywords you provided. Try alternative keywords if you don't find information you need.
Check the status of the websites you visit. Use information from academic encyclopedias and journals or other official sources rather than user-submitted article collection websites which anyone can edit. Website domain names that end with .edu, .org, and .gov generally indicate reliable sources of information.
Keep all text and images you collect in a separate file. Include with your notes the associated website's name and URL, the date the site was last modified and when you visited it. Good note-taking practices make it much easier to remember where information comes from when you write your essay.
Add references to all the websites you use in your essay. Display the references according to standard academic conventions. If your essay is in the arts or humanities (subjects such as literature or history), reference the websites in footnotes. If your essay is in a science or social science subject, place the website references in the bibliography. Include the name of each website and its URL. Put the URL on a separate line, below the rest of the reference. Keep long URLs on one line if possible. Do not separate elements of a URL with a dash or comma. Add the date the website was updated, if known, and the date you visited the site. A website reference citation example is:
Morris, Edmund, "Five Myths About Ronald Reagan." Washington Post, February 4, 2011. Accessed February 8, 2011.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/04/AR2011020403106.html