Writing 110: Information Literacy

A short video on information literacy skills and scholarly research.

Developing a Research Question

A good research question also leads to a direct answer in the form of a thesis.

• Ask open-ended “how” and “why” questions about your general topic. 

• Consider the “so what” of your topic. Why does this topic matter to you? Why should it matter to others?

Some good words and phrases to include in your research question include:

• What are…? What do…? What should…? Why…? How…?

• Effects, benefits, impact, consequences, factors

• Prevent, promote, encourage

Reflect on the questions you have considered. Identify one question you find engaging and which could be explored further through research.

How does spirituality provide support to adult cancer patients in palliative care?

Identifying Keywords or Main Concepts

Your keywords should be in the research question that you wrote above. Highlight your keywords in your question:

How does spirituality provide support to adult cancer patients in palliative care?

• spirituality
• adult
• cancer
• palliative
• support

Identifying Synonyms or Related Words

Different authors may use slightly different words to describe the same idea. For example, one author may write an article on college students and religion, while another may write about university students and religion. Limiting your search to “college students” will keep you from finding articles about “university students.” Therefore, you should always consider possible synonyms for each of your concepts.

• Spirituality - religion, spiritual, faith, prayer, meditation, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, etc.
• Cancer - oncology, neoplasm, tumor, carcinoma, etc. 
• Palliative - end of life, death, dying, terminal, hospice, etc. 
• Support - need, help, comfort, peace, assist, aid, etc.
• Age Group or Age Related Check box: Adult

Constructing Search Statements

How Boolean Operators Work

Placing the words “AND” and “OR” (also called Boolean operators) between your search concepts and synonyms can help you create a search statement that retrieves the most relevant sources.

As the diagrams illustrate, using the word “AND” reduces the number of results you get, by requiring that both terms appear in each result. Placing “OR” between search terms expands the number of results because it retrieves sources that use any of the words. Generally speaking, you should use “AND” between each of your concept terms, since you want to find books and articles that address all the aspects of your topic. You should use “OR” between synonyms, to make sure that you find closely related sources.

Searching Techniques

Create your search statement

religio* or spiritual* or faith* or christian* or islam* or muslim* or jew* or judaism or pray* or meditat*

AND palliative or "end of life" or terminal* or dying or hospice or death

AND cancer* or oncolog* or neoplasm* or tumor* or malignan* or carcinoma

AND support* or need* or assist* or aid* or peace*

Age Group or Age Related Check box: All Adult

Now copy and paste your search statement into a database of your choice.