It's important to have an understanding of all the main concepts in your research topic. This will help you brainstorm keywords to use as your search terms.

How to do Pre-Research

The process of pre-research involves:

• Gathering basic information
• Exploring background material
• Identifying key themes and questions related to your topic.

Resources for Pre-Research

• Textbooks: Provide comprehensive overviews and foundational knowledge on various subjects.
• Lecture Notes and Course Materials: Review notes, slides, and reading materials provided during classes for relevant information.
• Encyclopedias and Dictionaries: Offer concise summaries and definitions of key concepts and terms.
• Credible Websites: Include educational sites (such as .edu domains), government websites (.gov), and reputable organizations (.org) for reliable information.

Example #1

Let's say our assignment asks us to look at the PILES developmental domains and how they are related. 

We can certainly start our search using " PILES developmental domains" as a search term, but the database may not recognize the acronym "PILES." If we search for just "developmental domains," we may discover that we are only finding broad information about development as a whole.

If we want to see how the domains are related, we will need to know more about the specific domains themselves. Doing some pre-research allows us to learn that PILES stands for physical, intellectual, language, emotional, and social. We can now use this additional information to help us select keywords as our search terms.

Example #2

Our topic is how do tools and technology help businesses communicate and collaborate.

An initial search could look for how technology in general is used by businesses to communicate and collaborate. However, our results may be limited because "technology" and "communication" are very broad topics. We can do some pre-research to discover what kinds of technology are available to help businesses, such as instant messaging, video conferencing, and project management.

We could also get more specific and come up with a list of specific tools used by businesses, such as Skype, Microsoft Teams, Asana, Google Drive, and Zoom. We will need to do several searches using a combination of keywords to pull together well-rounded information on how businesses use these resources.