PreSearch is an important step in the research process! It helps you gain background knowledge on your topic and come up with keywords and search terms to best find additional information.

When you PreSearch, you can use find and read sources that you won't necessarily cite for your project. You are gaining knowledge so that you can refine your search terms and your research question. For example, you would never cite Wikipedia, but it is a great place to start to get familiar with a topic. Look at the outline for key words and consider the links at the bottom. Bear in mind that they can certainly be biased, however!

Use the Search Planner to keep track of synonyms, related subjects, and proper nouns related to your search.

Keep track of your PreSearch articles, however, in case you do end up using any of the information you find. In that case you must cite your source of information. Remember, you must save your database articles to your Drive, since articles are password protected, URLs will not open when you are not at school.