2. Laying the groundwork for effective documentary research

However, making these resources available is not enough: they are not a homogeneous whole. On the contrary, it's a collection of disparate data. You won't be able to use them if you don't know where and how to use them. Documentary research cannot be improvised. Before starting your research, it's important to clearly define and delimit the subject(s) you're interested in. The first step is to identify the main and surrounding concepts related to the subject, using general and/or specialist dictionaries and encyclopedias (including Le Petit Robert, Techniques de l'ingénieur, Wikipedia), scientific and technical guides, manuals and document summaries. The search topic(s) should also be broken down into keywords, taking care not to forget synonyms and homonyms. Finally, the fields of knowledge (more or less related to the research topic) should also be identified.

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