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College Writing and Research: Creating a Search Strategy Review

An overview of the research process that helps support writing assignments and expectations at the college level

Creating a Search Strategy - University of Arizona Libraries

Crafting a Savvy Search Strategy Part 1 - UCLA Library

Using an essay outline to create a search strategy

Once you have formed your thesis and outlined your essay, you can use your outline to help organize your search strategy. Once you have your outline, follow these steps:

  1. Underline key concepts in your research question or thesis statement.
  2. Identify the main concepts or ideas in each body paragraph (these should mostly match with your thesis).
  3. Create a word map for each body paragraph to brainstorm search terms for each concept or idea.

If you break your search down into smaller pieces it will help make the search process less frustrating. It is easier to find information on smaller concepts or ideas than to search for all of the information you need for your paper at once.

Basic sample outline for essay about therapy dog events at colleges

  • Thesis: Therapy dog programs should be used more frequently in college settings because they are an effective stress relief method, they provide opportunity for community outreach and campus collaboration, and they are a low-cost option for student engagement.
  • Body 1: stress relief
  • Body 2: community outreach/campus collaboration
  • Body 3: low cost/student engagement

In the sample outline above, the key concepts are underlined and highlighted and the main idea for each body paragraph is identified.

Brainstorming a word map: body 1 example 

Start by identify your middle row terms connected by AND. These terms should be the terms that most represent the concept or idea that you are searching for. Then, brainstorm related terms or other ways to describe the idea for each of these main terms. These are the outer row terms connected by OR.

word map for therapy dogs search. Left column has three vertical bubbles from top to bottom: undergraduates OR college students OR university students. Middle column has three vertical bubbles from top to bottom: animal assisted therapy OR therapy dogs OR blank bubble. The right column has three vertical bubbles from top to bottom: stress management OR stress OR stress relief. The center bubble in each column has the word AND between them: college students AND therapy dogs AND stress.

Using the word map to guide your search

This word map can then be used to help format the database search string using Boolean operators. Remember, you may need to refine this word map as you are searching. Research is not a linear process and as you search, you may come across additional keywords or ideas that you can add into your search string, or you may find that certain terms don’t work for your topic.

For the above word map, you can construct the following strings. Remember that terms connected by OR should be nestled in parenthesis.

  • (college students OR undergraduates OR university students)
  • (therapy dogs OR animal assisted therapy)
  • (stress OR stress management OR stress relief)

You can then combine the above strings using AND in one search. AND instructs the database to search for results containing each term connected by AND.

  • (college students OR undergraduates OR university students) AND (therapy dogs OR animal assisted therapy) AND (stress OR stress management OR stress relief)

Screenshot of Academic Search Complete database advanced search box with the following search: (therapy dogs OR animal assisted therapy) AND (college students OR university students OR undergraduates) AND (stress OR stress relief OR stress management)