Lesson 3:
Developing a Strategy

Objectives

Define a Topic

Brainstorm Search Terms

Build a Keyword Search

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Brainstorm Search Terms

Analyze Your Topic

Once you've decided upon a topic for your research, you may be tempted to begin searching the library catalog, article databases, or web immediately. However, taking a little time to analyze your topic and select good search terms will save you much time and effort later on.

To analyze your topic, break down the main idea into smaller concepts.

For example, if your topic is about college students having jobs and how that affects their grades, you can break down your main idea into at least three smaller concepts.

concept 1		college students
concept 2		jobs
concept 3		grades

Consider: What is your main topic idea? Write it down as a question and then circle the main concepts.