Assignment | Researched Argument Paper (Black, Trainer): Search Strategies

If you want to skip around:

0:40 Pre-Research & Topic Development Recap
2:20 Creating Search Terms
3:27 Databases intro
4:05 AND/OR/NOT, parentheses
7:19 Database demonstration in Academic Search Complete
11:20 Wildcards
12:28 Quotation Marks
13:49 Proximity
15:33 Recap
15:59 All database work basically the same using these principles
17:29 Ask us about your specific research problem!

Your topic is not just your topic. It encompasses a bunch of sub-topics, which in turn have sub-topics, all of which can be described in lots of different ways with different words.

For example,

If I'm doing the topic cookies... Well, there's the different flavors. There's icebox and drop and roll-out cookies. Shortbread. Biscotti. Cookie cutters. Sprinkles and icing. The history of cookies. Linguistic differences (cookie vs biscuit). Girl Scout Cookies. Commercial cookie brands. Nostalgia and childhood. Cooking ability. National/cultural heritage.

Which of things am I focusing on with my argument?

All these aspects could be things to consider in my search.

Another Example

Maybe I'm researching the value of a college degree.

• What does "value" mean? Am I looking at personal value or value to society or the workforce?
  • personal fulfillment
  • educational attainment
    • critical thinking skills
    • organization skills
    • time management skills
    • subject area knowledge
  • good citizenship (democracy, educated citizens)
  • earning potential
    • starting salary
    • lifetime earning potential
  • economic impact
• What college degree?
  • associate, bachelor, master, doctorate
  • different majors

So I can definitely start out my search as simply value of college degree

But I need to also consider searching for college degree AND impact AND economy

We can also get into outright synonyms: college degree AND (impact OR effect) AND economy

Pay attention to what filters you have selected: online full time, peer reviewed, published with a certain range of dates, written in a specific language...

PowerNotes is a research manager that works on anything you can open in your browser. Save and organize quotes as you research so you've got an outline ready to go. The built-in citation tool can export a bibliography.