Writers Helping Writers
Hosted by San Mateo Public Library
2nd Thursday of most months (check back for updates)
Produced by the San Francisco Peninsula branch of the California Writers Club
Advanced Internet Research Skills Everyone Should Know
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 presentation, 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.
In this session, you will learn the following:
Why you should search using more than one search engine
How to create effective keywords, word phrases, and search strings
What is “Disambiguation,” why do we care, and how to accomplish it?
What are the Surface, Deep, and Dark Webs, and how can each help the research process?
A listing of Deep Web search engines and databases.
How Artificial Intelligence can legitimately reduce search time
Searching anonymously – why and how
What are the differences among search engines, metasearch engines, directories, and portals, and how can each help my research?
What are invisible websites, and why can’t we use them?
How can we ethically use people searches for our purposes?
This very well-received program has been presented at the San Francisco Writers Conference, the California Writers Club, Kiwanis, Rotary and at regional and national Mensa meetings.
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Geri Spieler has written about the only woman who shot at a sitting US president. Using her high-level investigative skills, she got Washington to open the file of what really happened the day she shot at President Ford instead of what the FBI covered up. In her breakthrough book, Housewife Assassin–The Woman Who Tried to Kill President Ford (Diversion Books), Spieler reveals the true story of that woman, Sara Jane Moore, who was a mother and doctor’s wife who lived in the country club community of Danville; she became the only woman who tried to assassinate the president and missed his head by six inches. The book has a three-book deal with a new publisher.
Geri is the immediate past president of the San Francisco Peninsula branch of the California Writers Club and has authored articles in numerous publications. She has written for the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and Forbes. As a Research Director for Gartner, a global technology advising company, she was a regular contributor to Truthdig.com, an award-winning investigative reporting website, and also a contributor for the Huffington Post. 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. Her latest published book is the first of the Regina trilogy. It is historical fiction based on her grandmother’s life.
Upcoming presenters
March 13 - Kate Adams
Presentations are on the second Thursday of the month, from 6:30 - 8:00pm.
Geri Spieler
About Writers Helping Writers at
San Mateo Public Library
The San Francisco Peninsula branch of CWC hosts a Writers Helping Writers program at the San Mateo Public Library on the second Thursday of the month from 6:30 to 8 pm. This event is managed by CWC member David Strom and co-sponsored by Tuula Laine, a librarian at the library and a member of the San Francisco Peninsula CWC.
Each month, CWC SF Peninsula branch members share learned techniques and experiences in their craft. From scoping out your memoir to finding inspiration for a poem to plotting your novel to learning the ins and outs of blogging—we teach what we’ve learned. This is an opportunity for all writers to meet and share their experiences.
Our purpose? To pass on what we’ve discovered to help other writers.
Anyone can attend, free of charge.
Watch this space for announcements of the month’s topic. Meetings are in-person only.