Searching on MEC and MEDO Making the most of MEC’s search facilities

Search facilities on MEC: Quick Search Guided Search Word and Phrase Search MEDO: Macmillan English Dictionary Online

Quick Search

Two tabs: Exam and Non - Exam material. User is able to select from level, age, resource type and topic. Option of leaving categories as ‘all’ or to select more than one option at a time. User can view results at any point in the search.

Guided Search

A step by step guide to finding resources. Search is divided into level, age, exam, topic, subtopic and resource type. Unlike the quick search the user makes only one selection at a time. The user is able to choose an exam type if desired. The user is able to see each option they have chosen to the left of the screen and use the path to go back to any step they want.

Word and Phrase Search

Searches within the title, description, text (including audio script) and meta data of each resource. The user is able to type in a word or phrase, use Boolean search operators or search by the resource ID

The word search results are weighted according to this: Field Weight Metadata 40 Title 20 Abstract (for Methodology Units) 10 Description 10 Content text 2 Audio transcript 1

Example Searching on the word “unidentified” produces 3 results in this order: 1. Unidentified flying objects (MLA003068) 2. Paper 1 Part 2 (E000022) 3. Flying saucers (MLA003539) Assumed scoring: Unidentified flying objects – occurs x 1 in title + x 1 in audioscript. Score = 21 Paper 1 Part 2 – occurs x 1 in article (content text). Score = 2 Flying saucers – occurs x 2 in audioscript. Score = 2

Search Uses Uses of the guided search: Specific criteria School syllabus Learners Uses of the quick search: Course building Looking for extra work

Uses of word and phrase search: Forgotten ID or name of a resource Search by topic only specific vocabulary Other uses: Class task homework task MEC basics practice

On the results page: Guided search doesn’t have filters for the results list but does have a path. Quick search has filters (content type, level and topic). Word and Phrase search filters by content type and level.

Word and Phrase Search Syntax The wild card (*) allows you to search for variations of a word. For example typing beau* in the search would give the results beauty, beautiful or any other word beginning with beau.

Quotation marks allow the user to search for specific phrases. For example if you searched for “study of evolution” all the resources that contain this phrase would appear in the results. The search doesn’t take into account punctuation or capital letters. Searching for “In 2000, the biologist Stephen Jay” would be the same as “In 2000 the biologist Stephen Jay”.

+ If you use the minus sign alone you won’t get any results at all because you’re asking the search engine to search for nothing! To make full use of the plus and minus sign you must combine it with another word and operator. For example +present –perfect means present must be in the search results but perfect mustn’t. - A plus sign directly before the word you type in means the word must be included in the results. For example +present A minus sign directly before the word you are searching for means the word must not be included in the results. For example –perfect.

>< ( ) If you want to control how important a word will be in the search results you can use these two symbols. If you write in >tiger <panther, tiger will come up higher on the result list than panther. The parentheses symbols allow the user to group words into subexpressions. For example +(water extreme) +sports. The user is looking for two combinations, water sports and/or extreme sports

Macmillan English Dictionary Online Search results include definitions, example sentences, British and American pronunciation with audio. The user can use the ‘wordsearch’ or ‘textsearch’ function. Includes ‘Study Pages’ which features an atlas and extra learning material.

Search results If the search has many results the user has the option of choosing from a list of words before viewing the definitions. The red stars indicate how frequently a word is used in everyday speech. The definition includes: the type of word the user is looking up. The Phonetic transcription. British and American Pronunciation

If the user clicks on the image it will pop up in a bigger box to the left of the screen. In some cases a label will appear describing a part of the picture if you hover your cursor over it. Images Some definitions come with images that appear to the right of the description.

Word search or Text search? The word search gives the user the option of choosing what type of word or phrase they are looking for. For example phrasal verbs, collocations etc…. The text search enables the user to choose where they would like to search. For example text, definitions etc….

Study Pages Study Pages includes: About the dictionary Language awareness pages The atlas

The End