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Information skills: Plan your search

Plan your search: Why should I know this?

Having a search strategy will save you time. Make sure you consider all parts of the assignment question and investigate what resources are out there.  

Remember! Your search strategy will probably change as you start to search, find and read information on your topic and you will discover new or different keywords to add to your search strategy as you go along.  

Things to keep in mind

  • Be organized - keep a note of what keywords you use, in which search tool e.g. Proquest Database and which keywords were successful.
  • Books, ebooks and websites will give you a broad understanding of your topic.
  • Use journals/ejournals via databases to give you more specific research on your topic. 
  • Use various combinations of your keywords in different search tools.

Why can't I just Google?

By RMIT University [5 minutes]

Template Example for Search Strategies in Databases

Video clip on the savvy way to search

Watch the video below - it walks you through a search strategy and you can pause the video and work along with your own essay/assignment question.  

 

Identifying your Search Terms