UGS 303: Dancing America - Rossen

Searching databases is different than searching in Google. You have to distil what you're looking for into a few key terms or phrases, rather than whole sentences. You also have to think of different ways to say those key terms, because different writers will refer to the same concept using different terms.  

1. Write down your topic and underline the main concepts (ex. Cultural importance of hip hop dance?)
2. For each main concept, brainstorm a few synonyms and related terms that get at that concept:
   • The first key concept will likely be in common for everyone on this topic, but the second and third will be different, background information can help with determining what to search for. 

   • Key Concepts	Culture	hip hop dance	United States
     Related Terms	Popular Culture Youth Culture History Community	Hip Hop Krumping  Other forms of hip hop dance	Southern United States

3. Combine key terms using AND and OR:​​
   • ​AND narrows your search by looking for articles with all of the words (your two or three key concepts should be connected with AND, because you need all of them represented in useful articles). 
   • OR broadens your search by looking for articles with any of the words (synonyms and related terms should be separated by OR - they get at the same key concepts, so any of them are useful).
4. Try different combinations of your keywords to get better results as you search:

​