WRTG 105 The Self-Help Genre: Search Strategies & Tips

When developing your search strategy, it will be helpful to think about What, Who, and Where

What: What are you looking for information on? What will you be searching?

1. Write out you overall topic and thesis as well as any questions you have as part of your research.
2. Identify what in your topic are your core ideas or key words. (It might also be helpful to identify some key words related to your smaller research questions)
3. Brainstorm synonyms, related words, ideas, and concepts for your key words. Remember that this list should change and grow over time as you learn more.

Keyword development is crucial because while databases contain a lot of good information, they often don't understand full sentences.

Who: Whose voices and opinions do you want to learn from?

1. Reflect on your topic. Who are the experts be? People who study a certain topic? People who lived through a certain event?
2. Are there different conversations that might be relevant to this topic and your questions? 

Where: Where are you likely to find the information your need?

1. Consider your topic, questions, and the experts and conversations. 
2. Where are your experts likely communicating on this topic? Where these conversations happening? 
3. For most academic research, your work will likely include academic experts publishing in scholarly journals or books. Are there particular fields, journals, or databases that might host these conversations? (and where can you go to ask a question like that?)

Search faster with these tips:

1. Search phrases using quotation marks " "  Example:  "to be or not to be"

2. Combine words with AND, OR, & NOT in capital letters.  Example: microcircuit OR nanocircuit"

3. Substitute * for several possible letters.  Example: Child* which will find child, children, childhood, etc.

4. Combine the three tips above for complex searching.  Example: homless* AND (health OR "health care") AND (adolesc* OR teen*)

In library databases it might look like:

In Google Scholar, you don't need the asterisk or AND, so it will look like:

Reflecting on your information needs and developing a search strategy will help you be thoughtful and reflective when looking for information. 

Being thoughtful and reflective when looking for information cuts down on fatigue and frustration. 

For this assignment and others you will encounter, remember that you searching different combinations of keywords in different places is a good idea. Experiment, remember that different tools and resources will be helpful for finding different things and navigating the breadth of what is out there.

Ask yourself what type of source is more likely to have the information you need and how will I use this source?:

• News articles?
• Scholarly journal articles?
• Empirical studies?
• Data and statistics?
• Primary documents?

Deciding the most likely source will help determine which database to use.

Understand the scope of the database you select. Ask yourself:

• Does this database cover the subject area (discipline) I really need, or is there a better, more focused database?
• Does this database provide indexing for the date range I need?
• Will this database point me to or provide the full-text for articles written during the time period that is appropriate for my research need?

Although retrospective materials are sometimes added to databases, the actual article you need might not be available electronically, because it is too old or too new. 

Ask yourself if there are special advanced features that can improve your search results or make searching easier:

• Does this database allow me to limit my search to a specific date range, or to a particular magazine or journal?
• Does this database allow me to email, download, or export articles to my citation manager like Zotero or RefWorks?
• Are there features that can help me to generate better search terms, like the Thesaurus feature or the "Browse Subject Headings" features in some databases?