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Information Literacy for First Year Students: Lesson 1: Starting your search

Information Literacy Programme for first year students. Start with "Home" and finish with "Unit 7: Information Identity" Assistance to enrol, click here Blackboard user

Keyword tips

  • Think of keywords that would describe your research topic the best.
  • Remember: Keywords searching will not take into account the meaning of the word e.g. "mouse" for a computer or "mouse" rodent.
  • Include a parenthetical note to clarify the meaning - example: Mice (Computers)
  • Usually a database will have a thesaurus you can consult what will recognise keywords and the meaning.

Your personal journal

Starting your search

When you start off with your search, use keywords and avoid insignificant words ‘on’, ‘the’, ‘of’; ‘in’ etc.

Example:


Topic:
Investigating the impact of emotional advertising on consumers

 


You can now start to search by using your keywords which will give you the best retrieval results.