1 What are you going to write about?

Write your thesis statement, research question(s), or a broad description of your topic.

2 Search Term Brainstorm

Write down anything related to your topic. Anything! Everything! There is no wrong here.
Consider the different parts of your topic you’re interested in finding more information on.
Create a list of AT LEAST 5 different words or concepts.

3 Search Combinations
Create at least 4 different searches by combining terms using AND & OR. Think about your expected re-
sults—what do you want to find and how can do you so? Experiment with different combinations. (Adding
or subtracting terms will get different results.)

___________________________________________________AND____________________________________________________

_________________________________AND_________________________________AND_________________________________

_________________________________OR_________________________________AND__________________________________

________________________OR________________________AND________________________AND________________________

Adapted from Thinking Tool: Choosing a Topic and Search Terms by Burks and Wolnick.
4 Get searching!
Using the database(s) demonstrated in this class and your search combinations, find one newspaper article
and one scholarly journal article on your topic. If you have time, find one book in the library’s catalog.

Newspaper article
Title____________________________________________________________________________________
Author__________________________________________________________________________________
Name of newspaper_______________________________________________________________________
Volume/Issue/Date________________________________________________________________________
How will this source be valuable to me? What does it tell me that I don’t already know? Does it support or
refute my argument?

Scholarly journal article

Title____________________________________________________________________________________
Author__________________________________________________________________________________
Name of journal__________________________________________________________________________
Volume/Issue/
Date____________________________________________________________________________________
How will this source be valuable to me? What does it tell me that I don’t already know? Does it support or
refute my argument?

Book
Book Title_______________________________________________________________________________
Author__________________________________________________________________________________
Location & Call number____________________________________________________________________
How will this source be valuable to me? What does it tell me that I don’t already know? Does it support or
refute my argument?