LSU Libraries - The Research Process

CONTENTS:
Introduction
Clearly define your topic
Collect/find information
Evaluate the information you find
Use and/or do something with the information
Use the information ethically and legally

Printer friendly version

BACK TO:
Tutorials home page

Once you have stated your topic as a question, you need to identify the main concepts in the question. Do this by picking out the significant terms in your question.:

Personal Example:

What cars should I consider purchasing, taking into consideration cost, safety and gas mileage, given my available cash, credit, and income."

Academic Example :

Does violence in the media affect children's behavior?

When you actually start looking for information these will be the keywords or "terms" you will use in your searches. Once you have these terms think of any synonyms and related terms you might use:

Personal Example:

terms	car(s)	cost	safety	mileage
related terms	automobile(s)	price		economy
related terms		expense

Academic Example :

terms	violence	media	child(ren)	behavior
related terms	brutality	broadcast(ing)	youth	conduct
			juvenile(s)
			adolescent(s)

Using connecting words "and" and "or" and truncation symbols you can construct a search statement which will return the best possible results. In this case something like:

Personal Example:
(car* or automobile*) and (cost or price or expense) and safety and (mileage or economy)

Academic Example :
(violence or brutality) and (media or broadcast*) and (child* or youth or juvenile* or adolescent*) and (mileage or economy)

For more information on using search terms and building search statements, see the Searching Techniques and Strategies Tutorial.

Comments | LSU Libraries | Louisiana State University | Library Instruction
Baton Rouge, LA 70803
Tel (225) 578-5652 | Fax (225) 578-9432
Copyright © 1998-2008 LSU Libraries
URL: http://www.lib.lsu.edu/instruction/research/research-process04.html
Last Updated: Wednesday, 29-Aug-2007 16:46:56 CDT