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Research Guides

AFRAM 260: African American Families: Search Strategy Tips

LaShawnDa Pittman

Design Search Strategy

Your assignment:
Create a blogpost for inclusion in the class blog based on class discussion, readings, and your research which critically discusses real-life instances of  the most pressing issues facing contemporary African American families including structural and cultural factors that have shaped their realities.

One of the more important processes in conducting research is designing a search strategy. You should use your search strategy when using library search tools/databases.  The following are things to consider in designing your strategy:

  1. Analyze your topic

      • You may need to find information in different kinds of sources
        [ Books | Journals | Newspapers | Magazines | Media (images, video, sound recordings)]

      • You may need to use more than one library tool (database, etc.)
        [ Some examples: Sociological Abstract | Academic Search Complete | America: History & Life ]

      • You may need to explore a subject over a period of time
        [ For example: 5 years | 20 years | 1960s | 19th Century | 20th Century ]


        It is important to clarify what you are interested in finding out about your topic; familiarize yourself with the key issues and context.  Begin by creating a research question. For example, what factors contribute to the dominant presence of the family forms discussed in class among African Americans?

  2. Select Keywords
    • Create a list of Related Terms. Another way to express this, is to create a list of synonyms for the important concepts in or associated with your topic. Example topic question: what factors contribute to the dominant presence of the family forms discussed in class among African Americans?

    • Narrower terms: (Good for limiting your search, excluding irrelevant information, or adding focus to your search)
          • Population -gender (men, women), age (children/teens, adults, elderly), groups (artist, educators, clergy, ethnic/racial groups, etc.)
          • Geography - towns, cities, states, countries, regions
          • Time Period - current, decade, 20th Century, ancient


    • Broader terms: (Allow you to explore the broader context of your topic. Good if you're having difficulty finding sources)
      Family, Race, Ethnicity, Parenthood,


  3. Create a Search Query

    Many of our databases or search tools require that you use AND or OR to combine multiple terms/keywords in a search.

    See examples below:

      • single mothers AND African-American families (narrows your search, both terms 'single mothers' and 'African-American famalies' must appear)


      • intergenerational OR grandparent headed-households (broadens your search, one of the terms must appear. Good for use with synonyms.)
      • personal narratives AND (African-American OR black mothers) (combines connectors AND/OR together in a search)


    • Use a technique called truncation with the * symbol to search additional forms of a word when using a search tool or database.

      Example: politic* will also find politic, political, politically, politician, politicians, politics.

      processes AND politic*

      Be aware that the truncation symbol may vary depending on the database (*,#,?,!) are the most common.

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