Research skills
A step-by-step guide to starting your research
Step 1 - Identify keywords in your essay topic
The keywords are written in bold for the following essay question:
Sample essay question: "What issues have you been able to identify in Aboriginal writing? Comment on the styles, the stories, etc. Do you think they have any unique characteristics?
Step 2 - Plan your search strategy
When you have identified keywords you can plan your search using variants of your keywords and synonyms, for example:
literature or writing or narrative
Aboriginal or Indigenous or First Nations
poe* or story or autobiograph*
Truncate words with * to search plurals or variants. Eg poe* will search for poem; poet; poets.
Step 3 - Select databases
Use the Library's Databases to find refereed/scholarly journal articles. From the Library's homepage, select the Databases tab. Use the Subject area menu and scroll down to select Aboriginal Studies under Humanities and Social Sciences.
Each Database indexes a different set of journals. Some Databases provide the full text of an article and some just provide the abstract, in which case you would need to find out whether or not the Library holds the article in a different database or has the print journal on the shelf.
Identifying keywords and events
- AIATSIS ThesauriCreated to help people find information in the AIATSIS collection , but can also be a useful way to find keywords to try using for subject, language and place
- Finding the meaning of an Aboriginal word (State Library of Victoria)Particularly useful for language and tribe information in Victoria.
- Australian Indigenous Language Collection guideParticularly useful for finding sources by Australian Indigenous people rather than just about them.
- Indigenous languages (State Library of NSW)Includes historic word lists, records and an easy to use map of Australia which points to a tribes' location.