CREATE A RESEARCH QUESTION
Come up with a tentative question you want to answer in your project.
Creating a research question will take your refined topic and turn it into a question your assignment will attempt to answer. Examples of research questions include:
- What causes incorrect information to spread on social media?
- How can we be informed social media users?
This will help keep you focused as you begin searching for information
DEVELOP A SEARCH STRATEGY
Select your resources and develop your keywords
The search terms or keywords you use to search are what determine the results you get. Here's a good exercise to help you generate keywords:
- Express your topic in the form of a question: "What is the effect of television violence on children?"
- Generate keyword search terms by identifying the main ideas or concepts within that topic sentence: "What is the effect of television violence on children?"; = Effect, Television, Violence, or Television violence and Children
- Expand your search terms by brainstorming related terms or synonyms that describe your main ideas:
- Television; media, TV,
- Violence; aggression,
- Effect; influence,
- Children; toddlers, youngsters, boys, girls
