Planning your research will help you find relevant resources when you conduct your search. The background information that you found when defining your topic can help you to think of appropriate search terms This section will help you plan your research and search terms.
Start by gathering some background information about the subject. Look at sources such as the following to find out about your topic:
Note: Wikipedia is a great starting point, but it should not be used or cited in your actual paper.
I tried the following sources for information:
Use your background information to think of appropriate search terms. Brainstorm every possible search term for your topic.Try to think of synonyms and related words for each keyword to help broaden or narrow your search.
Look at your topic. For example: ‘Are Canadian youth politically engaged?’ The keywords in this topic would be Canadian, youth, and political engagement.
These keywords can become:
My research question was ‘Can alternative energy sources help stop global warming?’
For this question, the keywords would be alternative energy sources, and global warming. So, some search terms could be: