Guides: Education: Plan

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Planning your search is key to getting the most out of your search results. The following video will help you get started.

Video Length: 2:26

Key points from the video

Searching for your whole assignment is not very effective
Identify the key concepts in your question or topic
Think about what other words (similar words or alternative terms) might be used to describe the key concepts
Connect your concepts using AND and OR
You can change your search as you find more information

Searching for your whole assignment is not very effective
Identify the key concepts in your question or topic
Think about what other words (similar words or alternative terms) might be used to describe the key concepts
Connect your concepts using AND and OR
You can change your search as you find more information

Read: How to plan your search

How to plan your search (PDF)

The rest of this page will outline the key steps for planning your search as discussed in this video: identify keywords, consider alternative keywords, connect your keywords as well as understand assignment types and copyright.

Step 1

Identify keywords

Typing your question into Google or the Library Collection is not the best way to search.

Mapping out your search can be a good place to start:

Identify the keywords (also known as key concepts) in the assignment question - these are the words which give meaning to the question, the main ideas
Remove task words (also known as instruction words) from your assignment question - these are the words telling you what to do with the key concepts (e.g. analyse, compare, discuss)

Test your knowledge

Step 2

Consider alternative keywords

Now you've identified the keywords in your assignment question, try doing the following to help you understand your keywords and find similar or alternative keywords:

Use the course readings, an encyclopedia, dictionary or reliable websites to understand your topic

Macquarie dictionary
The Macquarie dictionary is constantly updated with Australian Language words

Use a thesaurus to help you find similar or alternative keywords

Webster's Word Power English Thesaurus: A-Z of Alternative Words
The Word Power Thesaurus is the easy way to improve your vocabulary and extend your knowledge of words - by looking up alternative words. Contains 150,000 alternative words (synonyms), and over 7,500 antonyms (opposites).

Do some basic initial searching using the keywords you've already identified to see what other words are used in the papers you find. Create a mindmap or table to help you brainstorm alternative keywords

Using mindmaps to plan assignments (PDF)
Creating a mindmap or table can help you brainstorm alternative keywords.

Test your knowledge

Step 3

Connect your keywords

Once you have identified your keywords and found alternative keywords, you need to connect these to put your search together.

Use the following operator words, which most search tools will have, to indicate how you want the tool to search for your keywords:

OR: Combines similar keywords
AND: Combines different keywords
NOT: Excludes words from the search (use cautiously and only when necessary or you might exclude results you actually want)

Remember to use "quotation marks" to keep phrases together and (brackets) to keep synonyms together.

Example searches

Remember you can further refine your results by resource type, publication date, peer-reviewed and much more.

Test your knowledge

Step 4

You also need to understand the requirements of your assignment. The Student Engagement Unit has created a suite of resources called Study Help that can help you understand different assignment types.

Have a look at:

Assignment writing (video 2:43)
Resources to develop your writing skills
Assignment planning (PDF)
A short guide on the steps you need to plan out your assignment successfully.
Understanding assignments and instruction words (PDF)
A short guide on how to analyse your assignment task..

Final step

Copyright infringement is a criminal offence punishable by law. The University takes its copyright obligations seriously and staff and students who breach copyright may face disciplinary action.

Video Length: 2:52

Key points from the video