AHE2251 Sport Coaching Environment, Planning, & Delivery: Overview

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This page provides information on getting started on your assignment and keyword searching strategies.

About this guide

This guide provides a starting point for using resources in the VU Library.

Search the library

 
Search the library
   

Non-VU access
     

Steps to preparing for a successful assignment

  1. Collect all your information about the assignment.
  • the unit guide or VU Collaborate information on the assignment, including the marking rubric
  • the type of resources required to use in your assignment e.g. books, journal articles, reputable website
  • notes from classes on how to do the assignment
  1. Analyse the question and prepare to research
  • identify keywords & search the Library for resources e.g. books, journal articles (see the Keyword video)
  • identify and collect relevant material 
  1. Read for Information
  • read and make notes
  • prepare each Reference as you read it, ensure it is written in the APA referencing style. See the APA referencing guide for further assistance
  1. Form an opinion
  • collect notes from your reading and start to build your argument in preparation for completing the assessment task
  • write the correct References for each of the resources used for your Reference List

What are keywords?

Key words are words in a question that tell you the approach you should take when answering an assignment question. 

Keywords can include:

Content Words      

  • Tell you what the topic area is.
  • Help you to focus your research and reading on the correct area.
  • Think about synonyms or similar words.    

 

 

Source: University of New South Wales 

Limiting Words 

  • Tell you what area(s) to focus on, eg. sport coaching
  • Define the topic area further, eg. youth sport coaching 
  • Indicate aspects of the topic area you should narrowly concentrate on, eg. youth sport coaching AND coaching models Opractices.

 

 

Task Words

  • Tell you what to do; the action(s) you need to perform, eg. compare, contrast, describe, summarise.

 

 

APA referencing

Refer to the APA Referencing guide for detailed information on how to reference your source using APA style.

Transcript for keywords search strategies

Before you start researching on a topic…it is vital that you identify the keywords and apply some of the search techniques to retrieve the best results!

So what are keywords?

Keywords are search terms that represent main ideas and concepts in an assignment question or topic.

Library database looks for keywords anywhere in the record such as title, abstract, keywords and subject headings.

The first step is to identify keywords or ideas from the assignment question or topic.

For instance, if your assignment topic is ‘What effects do physical activities have on the overall health of women?’

Your keywords or concepts  are

Physical activity                 Health                                                   Women

Now Step 2 is to think of some of the synonyms or alternative words or related words.

The third step is to use the search tipsor strategies to make your search more efficient!

Such as using Truncation, Wildcard and Boolean operators

The Truncation symbol represented by an asterisk finds a term with various endings in a library search or the databases.

A Wildcard symbol represented by the hash # allows you to find words with alternate spellings. For instance, if you want to find terms containing both the British spelling and the American spelling.

Combine keywords in a search using the Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT

Use of the operators AND and NOT will narrow a search while the OR operator will broaden it!

If you are not getting the right kind of results change your keywords or refinements to broaden out or further narrow the results.

For further information, you can contact us online or talk to a library staff member if on campus.

End of video