Brainstorming is the task of writing down absolutely everything that comes to mind when you think about your topic. You can include keywords, concepts, synonyms, related terms, pro's and con's, different aspects of the broader topic, statements– ANYTHING you can think of.

Try not to think critically about the words you may be writing at this stage, as doing so can limit the potential of your brainstorming session. Don't worry about whether everything you put on the page will be useful or not (you can weed it out later).

Think freely! Brainstorming is a great way to inventory your current awareness of a topic and build a vocabulary base that you can use when you start searching for information.

After you've completed a brainstorming session, you can use the concept mapping technique to help you organize and establish relationships between all your ideas. Many students are quick to dismiss this step, but an effective concept map will allow you to quickly identify important relationships, as well possible gaps in your knowledge base, allowing you to conduct more focused, effective research.

Traditionally, concept mapping has been more of a paper based exercise, but there are now numerous online tools that are available for use (try: bubbl.us, gliffy)

Subject directories are hierarchical lists of web resources that have been manually preselected and organized according to a set of categories, and subcategories. Since subject directories tend to index a smaller number of web pages (as opposed to, let's say a search engine), you get fewer, but more relevant results as a large number of inappropriate sites have been manually edited out.

A subject directory can be a useful place to start if you have a general sense of the subject area, but are unsure of what exactly you are looking for.

Check out these subject directories:

• http://directory.google.com/
• http://dir.yahoo.com/
• http://www.about.com/

Refining your topic can be a difficult task if you are not very familiar with it to begin with.

An encyclopaedia will not only help to better familiarize you with the topic as a whole, but also suggest narrower categories of inquiry as it alerts you to the various key issues and concepts surrounding your topic, as well as provide you with a sense of how your topic relates to other subject matter.

Most encyclopaedias (specialized or otherwise) will also introduce you to the functional vocabulary associated with the subject and/or discipline. This can be incredibly useful as it later aids your understanding of more specialized literature and demonstrates how to use the topic terminology appropriately (helpful for when you construct your search strategy).

Check out these online encyclopaedias:The Canadian Encyclopaedia, Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica. Note that you may be prompted for your CCID and password for access.