When the word gathering comes to mind I immediately think of going on the internet to a search engine, preferably google, and just typing in the topic.  I don't find this to be a bad thing but I have learned additional steps to search on the internet from the U.C. Berkeley library site such as searching synonyms, being aware that I am performing a broad search versus a narrow search, and being able to know whether the source is accurate.

Sometimes a topic will be a specific term that you may not get all the info on the first few searches so using a broader search can supply more information.  For example, if I am doing a research paper on "mitochondria" and I am having a hard time gathering information, I might want to search the term "organelles", which could give me some key, yet generic information that can be helpful to the overall understanding of the term "mitochondria". 

Being able to determine the accuracy of articles is also an important skill to notice.  This is especially important when gathering information on the sciences.  For example, timely news articles that come out with new scientific studies can be proven incorrect in the future. 

Finally, I learned that searching a synonym for a word could lead to more or different results when you are not pleased with information you are being provided.  In other words typing in a less complicated word for a larger, more scientific word can lead to more articles, whereas typing in a more complicated and scientific word can lead to less, but more specific articles.