There's a lot of information out there. The trick is finding it.
Whether you're searching the free web or a database, thinking about search terms to search for your topic can save you time and help you find better results.
Before we get to specifics, let's look at a very brief overview of the searching process.
Define topic > Brainstorm search terms > Perform search > Browse results-record new keywords > redefine topic…
Notice that the process is dynamic and ongoing. As you search, you may add to your keywords list, and this may help you to develop or further define your topic.
Look at your topic sentence and pick out the words that represent the main ideas.
These "main idea" words can be your first keywords. Use these words to brainstorm synonyms and other keywords to add to your list.
“Do environmental protests affect deforestation?”
“environmental,” “protests” and “deforestation” are indicated as main idea words.
Consider the time period that you're studying and how it might impact your terms.
Think about ideas and subtopics related to your main idea terms. “healthy forest initiative; salvage logging; fire fighting”
This guide is based on information from the Western Oregon University Hamersly Library CLIP Project. Hamersly Library has made the tutorials available for adaptation via Creative Commons NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.
