This brief guide is intented to help you prepare an effective search strategy for researching a literary topic (though these same principles can be translated to other areas of study as well).

Where to begin:

Consider the following example of a literary essay topic:

• Discuss the themes of seduction and temptation in Milton's Paradise Lost

Step 1:  Identify appropriate keywords

Once you have read and thought about the text you will be researching, create a list of KEYWORDS that best describe your subject (author, text) and approach to the text (specific themes to be studied; theoretical approaches to the text, for example feminist, marxist, postmodern, etc). 

Include synonyms to account for variations in terminology, spelling (color, colour), tense, etc.  Antonyms are also occasionally helpful.

note: the above is not intended to represent a complete list of possible terms.

Words and Phrases may be combined using AND, OR, & NOT (i.e. Boolean operators). 

Using your list of keywords, create a variety of search strategies.

Keep in mind that not every article or book relevant to your research project will include or feature all of the words in your keywords list.

Examples:

milton and paradise lost
milton and paradise lost and (seduction or temptation)
milton and (seduction or temptation)
paradise lost and (seduction or temptation)
milton and paradise lost and satan
milton and paradise lost and (snake or sepent) and (adam or eve)
milton and paradise lost and tempt*

Note: The phrase "paradise lost" will, in most databases, generate different results than a search combining the words "paradise" and "lost".  The phrase search will only retrieve records that contain the exact phrase "paradise lost" ("quotation marks" may be required for phrase searching in certain databases)

The "*" symbol allows you to search for multiple forms of a word.

Example:  "tempt*" finds tempt, temptation, temptations, temptor, etc. 

The function of these symbols (truncation symbols) may vary from database to database. Also, some databases use the "?" or "!" instead of the "*". Check the Help or Tips page of the database you are searching if you are not sure which one to use.

Step 3:  Select the appropriate Journal Indexes and begin searching. 

Consult the Find Articles - English Literature page to identify the Journal Indexes and Electronic Databases that aremost appropriate for your subject.

Tips:

• Keep track of your searches (search history) and save your search results.
  
  
• Evaluate your search results: are the items uncovered by your search appropriate? relevant? of interest? 
  
  
• Pay attention to descriptors (similar to Subject Headings: headings assigned to a record to describe what it's about) and words in the titles of articles -- you may find other terms to add to your list of keywords above.
  
  
• Use multiple search strategies: do not rely on the results from just one or two searches. Use the various combinations of words and phrases (see above) to perform multiple searches.
  
  
• Remember: research does not necessarily end once you begin writing your paper!  New areas of interest may come to light once you start working through your preliminary research findings.  You may want to perform new searches that incorporate this new information, new terminology, etc.