ELTM08 – Tips and Tricks for Searching Effectively
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Don’t stick to just one keyword when searching. Think around your topic and identify some alternatives to make sure you’re covering your subject fully.
Use a dictionary, thesaurus or subject handbook to help you identify keywords and check meanings you’re unsure of or terms you’re unfamiliar with.
As well as searching by keyword also search by author surname. Once you’ve identified some experts in your field who write well and/or often look to see what other research they’ve done that might be useful.
When using the library catalogue look closely at all the information available for titles – many print and e-books contents pages can be viewed from the library catalogue.
Remember that your topic might also be discussed in book chapters as well as books, for example ‘Communicative Language Teaching’ might feature in chapters in texts like Language Learning Techniques or Language Learning Methods (see above tip for quickly viewing contents pages without leaving your computer!)
