Information Search Process for Research

Topic Selection

• personal interests

• assignment requirements

• instructors recommendations

• topics on course's textbooks

• topics on encyclopedias or the news

Strategies for Topic Selection

• look for questions rather than just information

• Google search: general exploration (not academic content)

• explore newspaper articles: Canadian Newsstand, CBCA

Reference

Prefocus Exploration

• collect ideas: contradictions, controversies

• explore the terminology: new terms, synonyms

• take notes of facts, dates, authors, and potential

sources

Attitude/Angle/Argument

Thesis or Research Question

Focus Formulation

Topic of Interest

Doping

Doping preventionDoping and

health risksEthical aspects about

doping

Research question: Should the use of performance enhancing drugs (doping) be

allowed in elite sports?

Lance Armstrong

Research question: Should the use of performance enhancing drugs be

allowed in elite sports?

Statement 1: Performance enhancing drugs that do not expose athletes to

excessive risk should be allowed because this would make the sport fair to

all competitors and anti-doping organizations could concentrate more efficiently

on drugs that are in fact dangerous.

Statement 2: Performance enhancing drugs should not be allowed in any situation

because they increase the risks to athletes’ health and doping use is against

the spirit of sport.

Boolean Search

dopingelite

athletesdoping

Performance

enhancing

drugs

cycling baseball

AND OR

NOT

Search exact phrases:

“elite athletes”

Keywords

Doping Performance enhancing drugs, PED

Elite sports Athletes, elite athletes

Ethics ethical aspects, moral aspects

(doping OR performance enhancing drugs) AND athletes AND (moral OR

ethics)

http://library.yukoncollege.yk.ca/

Information Collection & Search Closure