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Find and use information

Thinking about your topic & forming questions to guide your research:

  1. What is the topic?
  2. Brainstorm. What do you already know? Refer to lecture notes and readings. Scope the topic using encyclopedias or sources such as books on the broad topic. Resources such as Credo Reference or Encyclopaedia Britannica can be helpful for background information. It may be helpful to use mindmapping, concept diagrams, or a search grid to clarify your ideas.
  3. From your initial brainstorm, decide, what are your research question(s)? 
  4. For each question, select some keywords that describe what you want to know. Use these to search.

Techniques for searching

Identify keywords and concepts, and synonyms of these, to use in your search.

Search grid example.

search grid example

Truncation:

This symbol is used to search for word variants.

In many databases the truncation symbol is an asterisk:  *   but you should check the database help screen if unsure.

E.g.  child* will find child, children, childhood, childish, etc

Wildcard:

This symbol can be used to replace a character in the middle of a word and is useful when searching for alternative spellings.

In many databases the wildcard symbol is a question mark ? but you should check the database help screen if unsure.

E.g.: organi?ation will find organisation or organization

Credits: Anne Burke: Project Lead, Scripting, Storyboards Kim Duckett: Team Lead Daria Dorafshar: Graphics and Animation Mara Mathews: Narration Jason Evans Groth: Audio Production Andreas Orphanides: Writing, Editing, Technical Infrastructure Sarah Craig, Jennifer Garrett, Adrienne Lai: Additional Writing and Editing

Finding academic articles 2021 COMM570 workshop

Search techniques handout