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SOCD20 / GASD20: Advanced Seminar: Social Change and Gender Relations in Chinese Societies

Winter 2022

Writing Effective Search Strategies

Before you begin, read your research question/assignment. If you have any questions, be sure to ask your instructor or TA before you begin your research.

To help you work through the steps of creating a search strategy, you may find this worksheet helpful:

  Why? How? Example
Step 1: Identify key concepts Key concepts from your research question are the most effective search terms to quickly locate relevant sources. Underline key nouns from your research question.

How does gender socialization impact household chores in China?
Step 2: Identify alternative search terms To find everything relevant to your topic in a database. Brainstorm alternatives (synonyms, alternative spelling) for your key concepts.

Key concept 1: 

  • gender socialization
  • gender binary
  • gender non-binary
  • gender
  • femininity
  • masculinity

Key concept 2: 

  • household chores
  • housework
  • unpaid work
  • unpaid labour

Key concept 3: 

  • China
  • Chinese
  • East Asia
Step 3: Combine your search terms In order to get more focused results, use Boolean operators (and, or) as well as the wildcard* to combine key concepts.

AND: Combines key concepts together to find articles that contain both concepts.

OR Combines alternative search terms to find articles that contain either/any concept.

Wildcard*: Finds variations in spelling, prefixes, and suffixes (cyberbull* = cyberbully, cyberbullies, cyberbullying)

Quotation marks: searches for word or phrase as a unit (preserves word order)

("gender socializ*" OR "gender *binar*" OR gender* OR feminin* OR masculin*)

AND

("household chore*" OR housework OR "unpaid work")

AND

(china OR chinese OR "east asia*")
Step 4: Consider using limiters (available in a library database) In order to focus on articles that are appropriate for your assignment. Choose limiters in a library database that are relevant to your research needs.
  • Scholarly or peer reviewed
  • Format, e.g. newspaper, magazine, scholarly journal
  • Publication date
Step 5: Review your search results Check if articles are appropriate for your assignment to ensure you find the right information to write a high quality paper.

Check if you articles are:

  • Relevant to your topic and discipline
  • Scholarly or peer-reviewed
  • Current enough (publication year)
  
Step 6: Adjust your strategy If you don't find relevant articles, change your search strategy.

Too few articles? Try...

  • Expanding one of your main concepts to a larger topic
  • Adding more synonyms or related terms (combine with OR)
  • Deleting the least relevant term from your search
  • Using the wildcard*

Too many articles? Try...

  • Focusing on a specific component of the topic
  • Adding more keywords (combine with AND)

Examples:

Too few articles?

  • Consider adding related terms to your search, which may have a broader or narrower meaning
  • Check for alternate spellings
  • Search for the plural versions of your concepts
  • Capture variant forms of each concept (e.g. noun vs. verb)

  • Examples:

  • Compare gender socialization with other  countries or cultures

 

Too many articles? Try...

  • Limiting the search to a specific population or group, phenomena, or aspect of the topic
  • Looking at your topic in a specific location or region

  • Examples:

  • Narrow your search to the experiences of gender socialization to a particular city
  • Focus on one particular aspect of housework (e.g., errands, cleaning)

Adapted from The University of Manchester Library: Making Your Search Work (Cheat Sheet)