Research Journal Entry #10- University 106

I started my search using “Clusty” search engine. Admittedly, I get stuck in the Google rut so I was eager to try a new search engine. When I first started, I used the words “breast cancer”. I thought, “Wait a minute, I need to search for the BRCA1 & BRCA2 genes, not just breast cancer.” So I entered the term “brca”. Once the results popped up, I noticed along the left side, in a column, the “clusters”. I found this to be way cool and super helpful too! I liked how it had all of the related topics all together, and then also in the listing of the topics, it had a number by the topics, indicating how many related pages were under that topic.

I clicked on BRCA mutation, to find five sub-topics, more closely related to the mutation of the gene. This was extremely helpful because for this week in English 102, I am making a website all about the mutated BRCA gene. My goal for the website is to inform the general public about what it means to have hereditary breast cancer. As I was discussing my topic with other people in my class, I found that not one person had ever even heard about the BRCA genes before! Using Clusty search engine will help me get a good idea for general topics to touch upon for my website. I have done tons of research (both academically & personally) to gain knowledge about the mutated BRCA genes. So because of that, my understanding of the BRCA genes is far greater than that of the general population. With that, I didn’t want to make my website too in depth; I simply wanted to help people understand what it means to have the BRCA gene(s).

I also think it is super important to include the testing criteria for genetic testing. Again using the Clusty search engine I was able to find the clusters that pertained to who get tested and why they get tested. I search “brca” again, and found “brca testing” in the side topic category. After sifting through all 8 of the pages in the brca testing cluster, I was really amazed to find that pretty much every single one of the pages were useful! Not the case when searching on google or even some of the library databases. Although I realize that not all of these pages constitute being scholarly, they are still very helpful for my goal of creating some high points for my website. Finding and using different search engines will ultimately enrich this project and help enhance my future projects too!