Most students never make it past Google. They find a few articles, skim them, and call it research. Top students do something different: they make what's called the Scholar Shift — moving from Google into Google Scholar, where peer-reviewed academic research lives. This is where examiners can immediately see the difference between a C-grade and an A-grade essay.
What Google Is Actually For
Before getting to Scholar, understand what Google is good for in EE research:
Context and Definitions
Use Google to understand your topic at a surface level. Get your bearings before going deep.
Policy Documents and Reports
Government websites, think tanks (IMF, World Bank, McKinsey), and news outlets give you real-world data.
Intro-Level Understanding
Wikipedia, Investopedia, and similar sources are fine for building initial understanding — but never cite them in your essay.
Note
Google is NOT for: academic arguments, causal claims without peer-reviewed citations, or EE-level analysis. If you build your argument on Google alone, your essay will read like a school report, not a research paper.
The Scholar Shift
Google Scholar (scholar.google.com) gives you access to peer-reviewed papers, academic journals, PhD dissertations, and studies by researchers who have spent years studying exactly what you're writing about. Once you cite these, your essay immediately reaches a different level.
Most students don't get to this level of depth. The people grading your paper know this — which means arriving here already puts you ahead.
The Step-by-Step Scholar Method
Search Narrowly
Not "inflation India" — instead: "monetary policy transmission India inflation." The more specific your search term, the more relevant your results.
Sort by Relevance First
Don't filter by date immediately. New does not mean good. Influential foundational papers from 10-20 years ago are often more useful than recent ones.
Open Maximum 3 Papers
Top students do NOT open 20 tabs. They scan the abstract, introduction, and conclusion. If a paper doesn't directly help, discard it.
Follow the Citations
The best strategy: find one good paper, then look at what IT cites. Those foundational papers are often the most authoritative sources you can use.
What Makes a Source EE-Worthy
| EE-Worthy | Red Flag |
|---|---|
| Has a clear argument or finding | Blog post with no citations |
| Uses data or established theory | News article used as analysis |
| Acknowledges its own limitations | Paper that only describes, never evaluates |
| Can be evaluated, not just summarised | Wikipedia or student-written sources |
| Published in a journal or by an institution | Random website with no author |
How to Note Sources (Not Like Your Dump)
For your final source notes (separate from your Dump), record only three things per source. This makes evaluation effortless when you're writing:
- 1Core claim (1 sentence — what does this paper argue?)
- 2Evidence/method (what data or approach did they use?)
- 3Limitation or bias (what does this paper NOT account for?)
Tip
The limitation you note becomes your critical evaluation in the essay. "While Smith (2019) argues X using Y methodology, this approach has limitations because Z." That single sentence pattern is worth marks under Criterion C.
When to Stop Researching
You stop when each of your sub-questions has 2-3 solid sources. Not 10. Not 20. Two or three strong, peer-reviewed, evaluable sources per subtopic is more than enough for a 4,000-word essay.
Key Takeaways
- Google for context, Google Scholar for academic arguments — never mix these up
- Search narrowly with specific terminology, not broad topic names
- Open 3 papers max, scan abstract + intro + conclusion, discard the rest
- Follow citations to find the foundational papers everyone references
- Note: core claim, evidence/method, limitation — nothing else