Search Techniques

Research Topic into a Research Question
Hone down a broad research topic/interest into a research question/query that your work will address.

Example: "How did the death of Sitting Bull impact the Lakota legacy of the Standing Rock Reservation?"

Formulating Keywords/Search Terms
Break down your research question into searchable terms that will retrieve a variety of results

Example: Sitting Bull, Lakota, Standing Rock Reservation

Using Synonyms and Related Terms
Generate a list of related terms/synonyms that can expand or narrow your search

Example: Native Americans, the Dakotas, Standing Rock Agency

Using Boolean Operators and Other Techniques
See how to use Boolean Operators on this page
Other techniques can be employed to make your searching more efficient:

Quotation Marks will allow you to search for an exact phrase as it appears in order

Example: "Lakota tribe" "Standing Rock"

Truncation and Wildcards are handy for locating similar but not indentical terms

Note: Google automatically truncates/stems searches 

* Example: *east will find Northeast and Southeast - this replaces all the preceding or remaining letters
# Example: wom#n will find woman and women - this replaces one character in the middle or at the end of a word
? Example: col?r with find color and colour - this will search for different spellings of a word

Specific Site Searching
Precede your search with site: if you know you want results from a specific place or from a type of site (.org, .edu, .gov)

Example: op-ed site:nytimes.com
Example: COVID restrictions site:.gov

Putting These Together
An efficient, well organized search query may look something like this:

"Sitting Bull" AND (Lakota OR Hunkpapa) AND "Standing Rock" site:.org

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Digital Literacy Vocabulary

Term Definition
Algorithm A set of step-by-step instructions or rules to solve a problem.
Bias A preference for or against something that can impact how information is presented.
Clickbait Content designed to attract attention and get people to click on a link.
Credibility The quality of being believable and trustworthy.
Digital Citizenship The skills and knowledge used to effectively, responsibly, and safely use the Internet and other digital technologies. 
Digital Footprint The record of your online activity that can be viewed by others.
Disinformation False information spread on purpose to deceive people.
Evaluate To carefully examine something in order to judge its value or quality.
Filter Bubble A situation where you may only see information that agrees with your existing views.
Misinformation False information that is spread, regardless of intent.
Source The origin of information or where something comes from.
Verify To confirm that something is true or accurate.
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The Research Process

Step 1: Identify your research topic and begin formulating a thesis/research question

Step 2: Do basic general research to build your knowledge and understanding and focus your thesis/question

Step 3: Locate and read materials and sources needed to support your writing

Step 4: Evaluate materials and sources for evidence 

Step 5: Take notes on the evidence you will integrate into your research

Step 6: Write your paper/complete your project with corresponding in-text citations

Step 7: Complete your bibliography and include it at the end of your work

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Boolean Operators

Use AND in a search to narrow results - this tells the database to include all of the terms in search results

Example: liberation AND theology AND socio-economic

Use OR in a search to broaden results - this tells the database to retrieve any of the terms in the search results

Example: liberation OR theology

Use NOT in a search to exclude (narrow) results - this tells the database to ignore/remove search results that include these terms

Example: womanist NOT feminist

If you are using AND and OR together in a search query, enclose the OR terms in paranthesis for the database to make sense of the order of your search

Example: (liberation OR womanist) AND theology

Boolean operators Venn diagram. The Styberg Library, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, 8 Jan. 2025, guides.garrett.edu/atlaresearchguide. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025. 

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Source Types

Primary Source

- First hand account or direct evidence

- Documentation that is orignial to an information event or a person, without interpretation

- In art, this is any original artistic piece

Examples: Sculptures, paintings, diaries, letters/correspondence, fiction books, speeches

Secondary Source

- Analysis, interpretation, or evaluation of original events, research, or documents

- Use (and often quote) primary sources and other evidence sources for context and examination

Examples: Journal articles that review or interpret research, textbooks*, edited works, commentaries, political analysis

Tertiary Source

- Generally these are reference sources that index, organize, summarize and repackage information

- These are usually not credited to a specific author

Examples: Dictionaries, encyclopedias, almanacs, guidebooks, handbooks, manuals, textbooks*

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