A Basic Search Lesson from My Archives

I’m presently in London, England for the BETT Present and TeachMeet BETT 2014. As is the case with most flights going to Europe from the east coast of the U.S. my flight left within the night and arrived in London in the course of the morning. This meant that I used to be too early to verify into my resort. I knew this forward of time and figured that I might in all probability verify my baggage on the ExCel Convention Middle the place the BETT Present is being held. I needed to substantiate this forward of time so I spent a while looking on the BETT and ExCel web sites for “coat verify,” “bag verify,” “coat room,” and “bag storage” within the hopes of confirming my assumption. My searches had been fruitless.

Finally I confirmed my assumption a couple of baggage verify once I stumbled upon a map of the convention heart. In looking across the map I found a “cloakroom.” After I hear “cloak” I immediately consider the Depend Chocula character from the cereal bins of the 1980’s (my mom by no means allow us to eat that form of cereal regardless of our pleas). I by no means thought to make use of the phrase “cloak” in any of my searches for details about storing my jacket and small bag for the afternoon. Cloak is simply not an everyday a part of my American vernacular.

I’ve little doubt that college students typically run into roadblocks of their searches for a similar motive that I didn’t discover something in my searches; we’re caught in our personal vernacular. Had I used a thesaurus once I bought caught, I in all probability would have discovered the phrase cloak and confirmed my assumptions about checking my baggage for the day. The lesson right here is when your search has hit a roadblock, attempt a thesaurus to seek out phrases which may lead you to higher search outcomes.

P.S. that journey to the BETT Present additionally lead me to assembly Sophie Ellis-Bextor with out realizing that she was well-known. That is a narrative for one more time.