Search Strategy Worksheet
Yale-NUS College Library
Build a search strategy!
1. Write down as much information about your topic as possible.
What is your topic?
Environmental degradation caused by human activities and the debate over whether
individual behavior or government intervention is more effective in solving it.
What questions do you have?
- Who should be responsible for solving environmental problems: individuals or
governments?
- How much impact can personal lifestyle changes (e.g., reducing plastic, saving energy)
really make?
- What types of government policies have proven successful in combating environmental
degradation?
- Are there studies comparing individual vs. governmental effectiveness?
What we know:
- Human activities are major contributors to environmental degradation.
- Governments have the power to enforce regulations, provide infrastructure, and shape
national behavior.
- Individual action (like reducing carbon footprint) is often promoted through campaigns.
What we don’t know:
- To what extent individual efforts can meaningfully mitigate environmental issues.
- The most effective policy approaches used by governments globally.
- Whether behavioral change can be sustained without structural policy support.
2. Summarize your topic in one sentence.
More and more people are suffering from environmental problems caused by human
activities, leading to the question of whether individual behavioral changes or government
intervention is the more effective solution.
Who – Individuals, governments, society
What – Solutions to environmental problems
Why – Environmental issues caused by human actions
How – Through behavior change or policy intervention
3. Using the summary in #2, list the main concepts of your paper.
- Environmental issues
- Human activities
- Individual behavior
- Government intervention
4. Using the primary concepts in #3 as headings, think of as many synonyms for
those words as you can – both broad and narrow.
Environmental Human activities Individual behavior Government
issues intervention
environmental anthropogenic personal lifestyle environmental
problems actions consumer choices regulation
environmental human-caused sustainable habits public policy
degradation issues eco-friendly actions policy enforcement
pollution industrial activity individual governmental
climate change urbanization responsibility initiatives
ecological crisis carbon emissions national action
biodiversity loss plans
Boolean & Truncation Search Strategy
Use AND/OR to combine search terms:
(environmental issues OR pollution OR climate change) AND (human activities OR
anthropogenic factors OR emissions)
(individual behavior OR consumer choices OR sustainable habits) AND (environmental
protection OR eco-friendly)
(government policy OR environmental regulation OR national strategies) AND (climate
change OR sustainability)
(individual action OR behavior change) AND (government intervention OR public policy)
(environment* OR climate* OR pollution*) AND (responsibilit* OR action*) AND (govern*
OR individual*)
Truncation examples:
- environment* → environment, environmental, environmentalism
- govern* → govern, government, governance
- sustain* → sustain, sustainability, sustainable
- pollut* → pollute, pollution, pollutants
- individual* → individual, individuals, individuality
- responsib* → responsibility, responsible