I. Write a research question about your subject:
Examples:
Which crime prevention programs are most effective at cutting down on repeat offenses of juvenile delinquents?
What are the effects of pollution on frogs in marshlands?
How did Lewis Carroll portray madness in Alice in Wonderland?
How can wireless technology improve patient care in hospitals?
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II. Write down the key concepts found in your topic sentence:
Key concepts from one of the examples:
Wireless technology, patient care, hospitals
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Write 2 or 3 key concepts from your question. If your question contains more than three keywords, you might need to do multiple searches and synthesize the results.
III. Find Synonyms of (or words related to) your concepts:
Synonyms of example concepts:
wireless technology: wireless lan, wlan, hotspots
patient care: PCS services, patient recovery, patient treatment
hospitals: clinics, emergency rooms
List synonyms or words related to concepts in your own topic sentence:
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IV. Connect Your search terms with Boolean Operators
And narrows your search:
A search for Wireless technology and patient care and hospitals
will retrieve only articles about all three concepts.
Or broadens your search:
A search for patient care or patients or medical records
will retrieve all articles about any of the three concepts.
A good search for this topic might look like this:
wireless technology OR wireless lan OR wlan OR hotspots
AND
patient care OR PCS services OR patient recovery OR patient treatment
AND
hospitals OR clinics OR emergency rooms
This search connects the synonyms and related concepts with OR and connects the different concepts with AND, thus doing a broad search for articles that must contain certain specific ideas.
V. Enter your terms into one or more library databases:
As needed, substitute or include other terms from your list of synonyms and related concepts. Keep in ,mind that articles you retrieve can be read to find additional search terms, such as important people, related concepts, and/or Library of Congress subject headings. These new words can be added to your next search.
VI. If You Need Help
Always feel free to ask a librarian for help!
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