Developing a Search Strategy

The first important step in researching a topic is to clearly define your mission and develop a plan or search strategy:

1. Define your topic - develop a clear idea of the exact nature of your topic and what information you are going to be looking for. It may help to state your topic as a question. Alternatively, you could conduct some preliminary reading by searching the reference section of the Library, or locating a relevant textbook, or by accessing the course readings in order to help define and clarify your ideas.
2. Break your topic down into concepts - identify keywords, synonyms and related terms within each component. Reference materials such as dictionaries, encyclopaedias and thesauri may help you find appropriate keywords for your topic.
3. Consider the type of information will you need to answer your question: Primary sources, including research articles and original texts written by the individuals immediately involved ; secondary sources, including book chapters and journal articles involving interpretation of the work of others; information contained in reports, government documents, theses, pamphlets, news media reports, audio-visual materials.
4. Consider how much information will you need - this will depend on the requirements, including the scope and length, of the essay or assignment.
5. Consider parameters or limits for your search:
   Is there a time span for your topic e.g. material published in the past 5 years?
   Are there geographic limits e.g. are you only interested in Australian content?
   Are there age-group limitations such as adolescence, the aged?
   

See also the Search smarter, search faster learning tool and What is a library database?