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

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.

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)

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

Use a thesaurus to help you find similar or alternative keywords

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

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.

• "social media" AND behaviour AND teenager AND "middle school"
• "social media" AND behaviour AND (teen* OR adolescen*) AND (school OR classroom*)
• "social media" AND behaviour AND (teenager OR adolescent) AND (school OR classroom)

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

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.

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

• Explains who is protected by copyright
• Copyright holders rights
• What is plagiarism?
• Referencing at University
• Copyright law during your studies

Remember to reference as per your program area’s preferred citation style.