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Research Steps

Research Steps. Step 1—select a topic Step 2—brainstorming for keywords Step 3—develop a thesis statement Step 4—develop a search strategy Step 5—search for resources. Library Catalog. The library catalog requires the use of specific searching techniques.

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Research Steps

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  1. Research Steps • Step 1—select a topic • Step 2—brainstorming for keywords • Step 3—develop a thesis statement • Step 4—develop a search strategy • Step 5—search for resources

  2. Library Catalog The library catalog requires the use of specific searching techniques. The following slides will help you with these searching techniques.

  3. Keywords • Flexible terminology • Easier to do searches • Less accurate

  4. Keyword Phrases • Single concept, multiple words • Some electronic resources require keyword phrases be enclosed with punctuation • Quotation marks • Parenthesis

  5. Basic phrase Proper names Hyphenated words Slogans, advertisements Famous quotes Movie titles, song titles, etc. (computer disk) “Native American” (x-ray) “kills bugs dead” (to be or not to be) “Lord of the Rings” Keyword Phrases

  6. Subjects • Predetermined terminology • Library of Congress • More difficult to use in searches • Very precise

  7. Native American Indians of North America Keywords vs. Subjects

  8. Boolean Operators • Boolean Operators connect keywords only • Must be placed between keywords • AND • Narrows your search • OR • Expands your search with synonymous terms • NOT • Excludes words from your search • If used too much, it can work against you!

  9. Boolean Operators • AND • queenandEngland • trendsand teaching and “united states”

  10. Boolean Operators • OR • queenorroyalty • teachingor education or schooling • AND & OR together • queenorroyalty and England • trends and teachingor education or schooling and “united states”

  11. Boolean Operators • NOT • queennothearts • schoolnot fish • AND, OR & NOT together • England and royalty or queennothearts

  12. Truncation (Wildcards) • Non-universal symbols used in searching • Common symbols: * ? • Used with a root word • Used to replace a vowel or single character

  13. Truncation (Wildcards) • Root Word- looks for multiple endings of a word, in this case it takes the place of ‘OR’ • jump? • jump, jumps, jumper, jumpers, jumping • athlete and jump or jumps or jumping • athlete and jump?

  14. Truncation (Wildcards) • Singular/Plural- replaces a vowel or single character in a word, in this case it takes the place of ‘OR’ • wom*n • woman, women • history and woman or women • history and wom*n

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