Understanding Research

Research process
Select a topic
Refine a topic
Identify objectives Choose approach
Explore a topic
Plan a search
Evaluate info

Finding Books

Finding Articles

How Do I Select My Search Terms?

Selecting search terms can be done in 3 simple steps:

1. Start with your key concepts.
2. Then look for other ways to express those concepts:
   - synonyms
   - related terms
   - variations of the words
3. Make a list of these keywords; these will be the words you use to search the library's online research tools.

You will be searching for materials written by other people, and not everyone uses the same word for the same concept. So you will need to think of different words that others might use for the concepts you are researching in order to find what has been written.

Let's Look at an Example:

The Topic: What is the impact of online news coverage of elections on the elections?

Step 1: The Key Concepts = online news AND elections

Steps 2 & 3: Search Terms - Let's generate a list of synonyms and related words for each concept:

Each word in the list above is a possible search term. The key is combining these terms successfully when you search in the online tools. You can learn more about searching effectively in the other two modules of this tutorial.

Now let's turn to choosing the right tool for your research.

Next: Choosing your search tools