May 13th, 2023 at 11:00 am – 2:00 pm
Research For Writers – Internet Skills All Writers Should Know
Geri Spieler has written about the only woman who shot at a sitting U.S. President. Using her high-level investigative skills, Spieler got Washington to open the file on what happened that day, instead of what the FBI covered up, chronicled in her breakthrough book, Housewife Assassin – The Woman Who Tried to Kill President Ford, (Diversion Books). In this true crime book, Spieler reveals the story of that woman, Sara Jane Moore, a mother and doctor’s wife who lived in the country club community of Danville in 1975 and in 18 months, became the first woman who tried to assassinate the President and missed his head by six inches.
Spieler is the president of the San Francisco Peninsula branch of the California Writers Club. She has written for the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and Forbes, and as a Research Director for Gartner, a global technology advising company. She was a regular contributor to the Huffington Post and Truthdig.com, an award-winning investigative reporting website. She has written San Francisco Values: Common Ground for Getting America Back on Track. She is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists, the Authors Guild, the Women’s National Book Association, the Internet Society, and the Book Critics Circle.
How do you start your research process? What words do you use to find information? Do you know how to gauge when a website is genuine? In this workshop, we will introduce the methods that combine the main topics of “Online Research Methods,” which include several methodologies to equip you with the skills and tools to prepare you to find accurate information and discern whether it is reliable.
Attendees Will Learn:
- Why you should search using more than one search engine?
- How to create better keyword and word-phrase searches using search strings
- How to avoid “Disambiguation.”
- What is the “Deep Web,” and how can it help the research process?
- How can I search anonymously?
- List of Deep Web search engines and databases.
- What is the difference between search engines, metasearch engines, directors, and portals, and how can it help my research?
- How to avoid “Filter Bubbles.”
- What are invisible websites, and why can’t we use them?
- Is “People-Search” ethical? How can we use it for our purposes?
Schedule:
- 10:30 Check-in
- 11:15 Writers Table
- 12:00 Buffet Lunch
- 1:00 Featured Speaker
Meeting Fees:
- Members $25.00*
- Guests $30.00
- *Member price increases to $30.00 at noon on May 10th
