When beginning, a good way to obtain background information and ideas to build on your topic area is with reference materials such as encyclopedias, almanacs, and abstracts. Once you have established your topic, state your thesis or theme in a sentence or two. From this sentence, identify the keywords and use them in your search statement. This is an alphabetical listing of every database UNCW has access to. To get started, try the three databases listed below.
Literal words are key words that are important to the topic.
For instance, you want information on head injuries that result from skiing accidents. AND is restrictive. The records do not have to contain both words. OR is expansive. Use the wildcard and truncation symbols to create searches where there are unknown characters, multiple spellings or various endings.