1. Once you have chosen a topic, write it down in the form of a question or brief statement:
How does culture affect the relationship between a child's family and their school?
2. Underline the key words and phrases that are most specific to your topic.
How does culture affect the relationship between a family and their elementary school?
3. Write down each key word or phrase, and underneath it, list synonyms or related terms.
For example:
culture: heritage, tradition, values
relationship: affinity, connection, association
5. Use these search tips to formulate your search strategy:
Boolean search: Use AND to narrow your search; Use OR to broaden your search
Truncation/Wildcards: Use * to search for plural or variant endings, such as famil* or school*
Phrase Searches: combine two or more words into a phrase by inserting quotation marks: "elementary school"
6. Now you can use this search strategy to locate resources in a database.
Example of a search strategy:
(cultur* or heritage or tradition* or values) AND "elementary school*" AND (famil* or child* or student*) AND relationship*