HRMT 15655 HR Management 2: Search Tips

Step One: Construct a research question.

What are some of the most common causes of occupational hearing loss?

Step Two: Identify two or three main keywords in your question.

1. cause
2. occupational
3. "hearing loss"

Step Three: Identify synonyms for each keyword.

You can find synonyms or more keywords using a site like Thesaurus.com

Enclose phrases in quotation marks, e.g.:

• "hearing loss"
• "occupational health"

Try adding an asterisk *  to the root of any word to pick up other variations of the word:

• occcupation* will also find occupations, occupational​

​When searching a library database, or Summon, use key words only, e.g.:

occupational hearing cause 

NOT

What are some of the most common causes of occupational hearing loss?