Brainstorm keywords that represent the main concept(s) of your topic. Think about what words you would want to see in an article that may indicate it would be useful for your research.
Topic: | outsourcing of the textile industry | ||
Key concepts: | outsourcing | textile | industry |
Related keywords: | globalization | fabrics | production |
contracting out | clothing | manufacture |
Combine the keywords you brainstormed into a search strategy. Put phrases in quotation marks and/or use AND, OR, NOT (Boolean operators) to get more precise results.
Broad Search
Search for information using the single most important term related to your topic.
Narrow Search
Search for information by combining keywords you brainstormed.
Too many irrelevant results?
Add more keywords.
Too few relevant results?
Remove or change keywords
Still not there? Try:
Adapted from: UT Arlington Library
Good research usually involves using a variety of information sources.