Skip to Main Content
We are working to upgrade the research experience by making ongoing improvements to our Research Guides.
You may encounter changes in the look and feel of the Research Guides website along with structural changes to our existing guides. If you have any questions or concerns about this process please let us know.

Rhetoric

Creating a Basic Search Strategy

Creating a search strategy helps researchers in many ways:

  • a topic is established, helping in clarifying a need for information
  • additional or related keywords can be utilized if certain ones do not yield the type of articles desired
  • search results become refined and precise, resulting in relevant articles.

These are the main steps in creating a search strategy:

1.  Define your topic in a complete phrase or sentence.

What is global warming, what is its cause and how can we control it?

2.  Circle the keywords in your sentence.

global warming, cause, control

3.  Generate synonyms for the keywords listed in #2.

Global warming: climate change, ice melting, El Niño, La Niña   

Cause:  reason, basis, explanation, source, origin

Control:  manage, cope with, deal with, organize, direct, oversee  

4. List the requirements for your articles (do they need to be scholarly, current within a certain number of years, or have other requirements?).

This assignment requires that articles not be older than 5 years old, must be from peer-reviewed article, and each must be at least 3 pages long.

5.  Try some searches!

Creating a Search Strategy

Do you need some help with beginning your research? 

The research process is much easier if you follow a few simple steps. Do you need some help getting started on your research?

See the links below for printable examples and for more information. 

Need help finding synonyms? Check http://thesaurus.com

Other Research Resources

Last updated on Mar 13, 2024 1:22 PM