Module 2: Search Strategies

Identifying Components of a Complex Topic

Once you have chosen your research topic, you must think about the important concepts. Then break those concepts into the simplest words that express the essential idea. Example: Research Topic: Are there security systems that can help safeguard privacy on the Internet? Components: Are there security systems that can help safeguard privacy on the Internet? Main Ideas:

• security systems
• privacy
• Internet

In order to translate the ways in which the different parts of a topic relate, use Boolean operators (named for the 19th century mathematician George Boole) to develop complex search strategies. Boolean operators are commands that allow you to combine terms in a logical way. The next page will show you how to construct a Boolean search using this research topic.