ENGL 100

By developing a strategy, you are preparing yourself for a successful search experience. There are a just a few steps involved:

1. Focus your research by writing down your topic in the form of a question:

• Are safe-injection sites good for our city?
• Are violent video games harmful for children?
• Is there a gender bias in the language of business?

2. Once you start searching, you want to avoid typing your research question into the search box. For this reason, it's important to identify the main ideas or keywords in your topic or area of research.

• Are safe-injection sites good for our city?
• Are violent video games harmful for children?
• Is there a gender bias in the language of business?

3. What synonyms or shared ideas/concepts can you think of related to your keywords? Write them down.

• See the section "Keywords have POWER" below

4. What kind of resources are you looking for?

• Academic articles?
• Books?
• News?
• Data or statistics?
• Media (movies, music)?

Highlight the keywords in your research question.

What synonyms (related terms) can you think of for the highlighted words?

Think about related concepts and ideas, narrower or broader terms, names of organizations, regions, people, etc.

Are safe-injection sites good for our city?

Are violent video games harmful for children?

Is there a gender bias in the language of business?