Susan,
Here are some things I've found useful:
Teach a step-by-step approach to constructing search strategies.
Advise people to create their strategies in a word-processor like MSWord.
Give them a template worksheet with a concept (term harvesting) table to fill in.
Demonstrate search construction using different font colors for each concept statement.
Always capitalize Boolean operators and put them in their own color.
Practice having them work backwards from a search strategy to reconstructing the question it came from.
Emphasize getting your strategies reviewed by a fresh eye (such as mine or another librarian).
Hope some of this might help,
-Jennifer
Jennifer A. Lyon, MS, MLIS, AHIP
Clinical Research Librarian
Health Science Center Libraries
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL
352-273-8441
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