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Fashion Merchandising Overview: Create a plan

One-stop research guide for Fashion assignments.

Brainstorm keywords

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

 

Develop a search strategy

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

Types of Sources

Good research usually involves using a variety of information sources.

  • Reference Books include detailed overviews and general information on a topic.
  • Circulating Books contain more in-depth information on a subject.
  • Periodicals (journals, magazines, and newspapers) provide the most recent information on a subject matter.