Research Strategies Step-by-Step

1
Research Strategies Step-by-Step

• An Introduction to Library Research

Questions about this activity? Contact Kimberley
Stephenson at kstephenson_at_apu.edu Note This
presentation is based on a handout created by
Deborah Moore of Glendale Community College
2
Research Strategies Step-by-Step

• This brief presentation will guide you through
  the process of selecting a research topic and
  developing a research strategy.

3
1 Details of the assignment

• Identifying the amount and types of sources your
  assignment requires will help you choose the
  right online research tools.
• Before you begin developing a strategy for
  searching the library catalog and databases, you
  should clarify several things about the
  assignment.

4
1 Details of the assignment

1. What type of assignment is it?(Research paper,
   essay, opinion paper, review, or other?)
2. How long does your paper need to be?
3. How many sources do you need for your
   bibliography?
4. What types of information do you
   need?(Statistics, Web pages, books, articles,
   images, audio/video clips, or other?)
5. Do you need current or historical sources? Or
   both?

5
2 Selecting a topic

• Now youre ready to begin library research.
• All research begins with choosing a topic.
• Research topics can come from many sources
  personal interest, current events, or course
  assignments.
• The hardest part of this stage of the research
  cycle is selecting a topic that is appropriate in
  scope and complexity for the intended resultnot
  too broad or too narrow.

6
2 Selecting a topic

• For example, a topic like special education is
  much too broad for a basic term paper. Hundreds
  of thousands of books, articles, and web sites
  have been published in this field.
• You can narrow a broad topic by adding additional
  concepts to it, like examining your topic in the
  context of a particular place, time period,
  population, or event.

7
2 Selecting a topic

• Limiting your topic (special education, for
  example) to a particular aspectsuch as special
  education for English language learnerswill help
  you get more focused results from your research.
• If your topic is too narrow and you are not
  finding enough information, try using fewer
  concepts.

8
3 Research questions keywords

• After youve identified and narrowed a research
  topic, you should re-state it in the form of a
  research question.
• Phrasing your topic in the form of a question
  helps to direct your research process.
• Asking whether a fact or statistic directly
  answers your research question can help you find
  the most relevant information for your topic.

9
3 Research questions keywords

• A good research question also leads to a direct
  answer in the form of a thesis.
• A sample research question might beWhat are
  some strategies for improving reading skills
  among ESL students in special education?
• This question might lead to the following thesis
  in the final paperRecommended strategies for
  improving reading skills among ESL students in
  special education include

10
3 Research questions keywords

• A good research question also helps you pull out
  the different concepts your research will cover.
• Our example, What are some strategies for
  improving reading skills among ESL students in
  special education? has 3 distinct concepts
• Reading skills
• ESL students
• Special education

11
3 Research questions keywords

• These concepts will become the search keywords
  you will use in the Library Catalog and online
  article databases.
• Keep in mind that not every author will use the
  same keywords to describe a topic one author
  might write about ESL, and another might use
  the phrase English language learners.
• For this reason, you will want to identify some
  synonyms and related terms for each of your
  keywords before you start searching.

12
3 Research questions keywords

• For example
• Reading skills
• Synonyms/related terms literacy, reading
  comprehension, reading level, vocabulary
• ESL students
• Synonyms/related terms English language
  learners, bilingual
• Special education
• Synonyms/related terms individualized education,
  differentiated instruction

13
4 Search strings

• Once youve identified your search terms and
  synonyms, the final pre-search step is to combine
  those terms into search strings.
• Online search tools like the library catalog and
  databases require a specific format for search
  statements, including the use of words called
  Boolean operators.

14
4 Search strings

• Boolean operators are the words AND, OR, and NOT.
• Placing these words between your search terms
  will help you find books and articles that are
  targeted to your research topic.
• Lets look at some examples.

15
Summary

• In this tutorial, weve covered
• Identifying the details of an assignment
• Selecting a topic
• Identifying research questions, keywords, and
  synonyms and
• Developing search strings.
• Remember that you can contact a librarian any
  time for help with any of these steps. Just visit
  our Research Help page for more information.

16
4 Search strings

• The Boolean operator AND gives you more targeted
  results by requiring that two or more terms all
  appear within the title, abstract, or table of
  contents of a book or article.
• Lets imagine we are looking for information on
  the performance of students in charter schools.
• A keyword search in the library catalog for
  charter schools returns 50 titles.
• A keyword search for charter schools AND
  performance returns only 4 titlesbut those 4
  are much more relevant to our topic.

17
4 Search strings
18
4 Search strings

• The Boolean operator OR is the opposite of AND.
  OR generally gives you more search results by
  requiring either one term or another to appear in
  a book or article.
• OR works best when you are looking for synonyms
  or related terms.
• For example, a keyword search in the library
  catalog for plagiarism returns 28 titles.
• A keyword search for plagiarism OR dishonesty
  returns 35 titles.
• A keyword search for plagiarism AND dishonesty
  returns 2 titles.

19
4 Search strings
20
4 Search strings

• The Boolean operator NOT (sometimes known as AND
  NOT) reduces the number of search results by
  returning only those books and articles that
  dont include a particular term.
• Use NOT carefully, as it could eliminate
  potentially relevant results.
• NOT works best when your search returns many
  irrelevant results, especially from a completely
  unrelated field.

21
4 Search strings

• For example, a keyword search in the library
  catalog for teaching writing returns 405
  titles. Many of these titles are written for
  college teachers.
• The keyword search teaching writing AND NOT
  college eliminates any titles that address the
  teaching of college-level writing, and reduces
  our results list to 351 titles. These titles tend
  to focus more on K-12 education.

22
4 Search strings