EDUC 689: Ford & Luke

Once you have determined your research topic, take a moment to identify a few keywords. Why? Carefully selected keywords help you locate information!  However, literature searching is an itinerant process, so give yourself enough time to experiment and explore. Here are a few tips to help you jumpstart your search: 

• Identify your topic's most important concepts 
• Keep it simple, concise 
• Brainstorm synonyms for your keywords
• Gather additional terms as you discover (e.g. subject headings, titles, etc.)

Check out this great video on how to develop keywords for searching: 

Source: John M. Pfau Library, California State University - San Bernardino & Ingram Library, University of West Georgia

While keyword searching is an effective tactic for locating research articles, Boolean operators, phrase searching, and other modifiers can help expand or restrict your search results. The following videos provide information on how to get the most out of your searches!

Source: McMaster University Library 

Source: McMaster University Library