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Honors

This guide has been created by librarians at NOVA to help you find books, articles, and other types of resources related to your Honors courses and assignments. Questions? Contact the Library Web Team at libraryweb@nvcc.edu.

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For individual research help, schedule an appointment to meet with a librarian.

Choosing a research topic

Picking a topic is research. Narrowing, widening, or otherwise adjusting your topic is a normal part of the process as you collect more information and prepare to write your paper. Starting with a topic you're interested in and giving yourself enough time to learn and make changes can make a big difference in the quality of your final project. Learn more about the research process with the short video below.

Search strategies

Example question:

How could artificial intelligence affect employment?

 

First, identify the concepts that are essential to your question. Those are your keywords:

How could artificial intelligence affect employment?

 

Use your keywords and the tips in the table below to start searching.

Simple Search Tips: Advanced Search Tips:
  • Type AND between each keyword to ensure results address all key concepts:

artificial intelligence AND employment

  • Use quotation marks to ensure phrases or connected words stay together:

"artificial intelligence" AND employment

  • Use synonyms and related terms to broaden your search and see new results:

"artificial intelligence" AND jobs

"artificial intelligence" AND unemployment

"artificial intelligence" AND underemployment
  • Use OR to search for synonyms or related terms all at once:

employment OR jobs OR unemployment OR underemployment

  • Use NOT to indicate terms you want to exclude from your results:

"artificial intelligence" NOT ChatGPT

  • Use an asterisk to truncate terms

tech* (the database will search for all words that start with tech, like technology, technologies, technical, etc.)

  • Use parentheses to group keywords together:

("artificial intelligence" OR AI) AND (employment OR jobs OR unemployment OR underemployment)
 

Try it step by step:

  1. What is your research question?
    • Does social media promote anxiety among teenagers?
  2. Identify the key concepts. These are the parts of your question that are essential to your research.
    • Does social media promote anxiety among teenagers?
  3. Brainstorm synonyms and related terms for each key concept
    • Social media: social networks, Instagram, TikTok
    • Anxiety: stress, fear, worry
    • Teenagers: teens, adolescents, young adults
  4. Use the search tips to put it all together
    • Simple search: "social media" AND anxiety AND teenagers
    • Advanced search: ("social media" OR "social network" OR Instagram OR TikTok) AND (anxiety OR stress OR fear OR worry) AND (teenagers OR teens OR adolescents OR "young adults")
  5. Use the database filters to narrow down your result list to the most relevant sources.
  6. Don't forget: research is an iterative process. That means that what you learn from one search can impact your next search. Refining or tweaking your search - or even your topic - based on what you find in your search results is a normal part of the research process.

Start searching

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Source credibility and lateral reading

Infographic by UW Green Bay Libraries

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