Skip to Main Content

MHP314 Research Skills Guide: Plan your search

Your assessment task

It is important to break down the requirements of your assessment task before you start searching for information so that you can plan your approach.

Let's take a look at the subject outline:

Assessment item 1 - Annotated Bibliography

You are required to address one (1) of the goals listed below:

Goal 1: Holistic, person and family centred care and healing in primary, secondary or tertiary contexts.

Goal 2: Culturally safe, trauma-informed quality care in primary, secondary or tertiary contexts.

and then construct an annotated bibliography containing  10 primary peer reviewed and/or evidence based sources. 

At first you may feel a little overwhelmed by all of these requirements. However, with some thought and planning, you can come up with a research plan that will suit this assessment task.

Topic analysis

Let's start thinking about what terms you will use when searching for information. To do this:

  • Identify the key concepts of your topic (watch the topic analysis video for assistance); and then
  • Brainstorm as many synonyms and similar terms/phrases as you can.

This is a useful exercise because the language used to describe your topic may vary from source to source, and you don't want to miss out on a good source because it uses a different term to the one you are searching on.

Let's use Assessment 1 as an example:

Keyword

Synonym/Similar term or phrase

Search tips

cultural

ethnic, racial

lifestyle habits, cultural traditions

care

treatment, medical

medical care, social care, provide treatment

mental health

mental health, mental illness, mental disorder, psychiatric disorder

"mental health", "mental illness", "mental disorder", "psychiatric disorder"

Indigenous

Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, First Nations

Aborigin*, “Torres Strait Islander”, "First Nations"

 

Keyword activity

Write down the key concepts from your topic and have a go at brainstorming as many alternative keywords and phrases as possible.

Find additional keywords

Charles Sturt University acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands on which its campuses are located, paying respect to Elders, both past and present, and extend that respect to all First Nations Peoples.Acknowledgement of Country

Charles Sturt University is an Australian University, TEQSA Provider Identification: PRV12018. CRICOS Provider: 00005F.