3.2 Combining Concepts for Topic Searching
As you try to find information for your assignment, it is likely that you will alternate between known topic or author searching and topic searching.
- The video tutorial on how to put a search together within a database will help you understand various strategies for developing a topic search.
- Divide your research question into at least two concepts.
- For the question What is the foreign language proficiency of elementary-aged children with autism in Alberta schools? there could be autism as Concept 1 and language learning as Concept 2 and proficiency as Concept 3.
N.B. The more concepts you add to your search the more precise it will be, but the less results you will retrieve. Therefore, if you have more than two concepts and too few results, try changing one or more of the concepts and/or removing a concept to increase the breadth of your search.
Please see the next chapter to begin thinking about the keywords and synonyms that describe each concept.
