Librarian
This guide has been developed to assist you with your research. You can navigate using the menu on the left to find out more about:
- Locating articles in appropriate subject databases
- What an empirical study is and why it's important for research
- How to construct a cohesive literature review
- How to cite your sources
- Where to get writing assistance if needed
If at any point you need more help, please contact or schedule an appointment with the librarian on the left.
Never put an entire topic sentence into a search bar. Instead, pick out only the main keywords. For example, if my topic is "What role does administration play in urban planning?", I would choose only the words administration, urban, and planning. In my search bar it would look like:
If you have trouble coming up with the important keywords, you can ask yourself the 5 Ws. Try to answer in just one or two words and use those as your keywords for searching your topic.
Who do I want to know about? Or who is involved in this topic? (could be a single person, a position, or a group)
What is this really about? What is the most important piece? (the main idea!)
Where is this taking place? (could be a geographic location, an institution, or a grouped area)
Why is this important? (think about impact of research)
When is my timeline? (while this can be a keyword, you'll more likely use a provided date limiter)
Never start a search with more than 2-3 keywords. The more keywords, the fewer the results. So start broad and then narrow in if needed.
