Search Tip #1. After you have submitted your search, limit your results to Full Text, References Available, and Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals. There is little use in giving time to articles you cannot read in full or that your teacher won't accept!
Search Tip #2. When crafting your database search, try using Library of Congress authority headings to better narrow your results. Authority headings or subject headings are like a set of agreed upon words or phrases that scholars often tag their article with to make their articles easier to discover. When you find a suitable subject heading, enter it in the search box, and swap out the "Select a Field (Optional)" from the drop-down menu to "SU Subject Terms".
Death is an example of a subject heading. Used alone, the subject heading Death may retrieve more results than will be useful to you. For better specificity, try the subject heading Death along with another search term, OR, search for narrower--more specific--subject headings than Death.
Check out Library of Congress Authorities for a more specific subject term. For instance, type Death into the Search Text box (with the Search Type kept on the default 'Subject Authority Headings'). Click on the red button button to the left, marked 'Authorized, Refs & Notes'. Now you will be given a list of Narrower Terms, such as Astrology and death, Kings and rulers--Death and burial, and Right to die. You will also notice a short list of See Also terms which could prove useful, including Thanatology (which is the study of death), Terminal care., and Terminally ill.
Another example. A Library of Congress search for Afterlife will inform you that Afterlife is a referenced phrase, but that Future life. is the preferred subject heading. Again, like Death, you may prefer to retrieve more specific search results. Click through to Narrower Terms for Future life. and you will find terms like Heaven, Hell., Valhalla, and Rebirth in Western Paradise (Buddhism), as well as See Also terms like Eternity, and Immortality.
