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Strategic Communication: Plan Your Search

This guide will help Strategic Communications students to navigate the key resources and develop core information literacy skills.

Why plan your search?

 

At university you are expected to find and use scholarly information:

  • in your assignments
  • to prepare for class
  • to explore new theories and ideas

However, to find scholarly information you need to search in a particular way to get good results.

Use this page to learn how to plan your search and find the best scholarly information sources to use. 

Step 1: Identify your key concepts

 

Before you find any information, identify the main ideas (or key concepts) in your assignment question or research topic

Example:

Explore the effect of social media on civic engagement with climate change

The key concepts are: 

Social Media Civic Engagement Climate Change

Step 2: Brainstorm keywords & synonyms

 

Different words can be used to describe the same concept.

Think of other words that could be used to describe your key concepts. Synonyms should also be included. 

Example:

Social Media Civic Engagement Climate Change

Social Network

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Civic Participation 

Citizen Engagement

Citizen Participation 

Civic Involvement 

Climate Crisis 

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Tips

Some resources to help with brainstorming: 

  • Google & Wikipedia
  • Dictionaries & Thesauri
  • Reference books & Encyclopedias

Step 3: Build your search

 

Boolean Operators are a way of telling a database or search engine how to do your search. Watch the video to learn how.

Use Boolean Operators to combine your keywords & synonyms into a search. You can build multiple searches using different synonyms & keywords.

Example: 

Use OR to combine synonyms & similar words:

Key Concept Keywords & Synonyms Search
Social Media

Social Network

Facebook 

Instagram 

Twitter 

 ("social media" OR "social network" OR Facebook OR Instagram OR Twitter)

Use AND to combine your key concepts together: 

("social media" OR "social network" OR Facebook OR Instagram OR Twitter) AND ("civic engagement" OR "civic participation") AND ("climate change" OR "climate crisis")

Step 4: Start searching

 

You will need to find different types of information during your studies. These may include: 

  • Books & book chapters
  • Journal articles
  • Newspaper articles
  • Grey literature

The type of information you are looking for will determine where you search, and how you search. 

Using the steps above will help you find most of these information types, but there are also other places to look.

Explore this study guide or ask a librarian to discover more. 

Step 5: Review your results

 

Not all the information you get from a search will be useful. A successful search will show results relevant to your topic. If your results are not relevant go back and try different keywords in your search.

Find relevant results by checking the: 

Even if your information is relevant, it might not be good quality. Check if it passes the C.R.A.P. Test before you use it.