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Search Strategies

Creating Your Keywords

Keyword Creation:

  1. State your research question/topic

    • EXAMPLE: "How do cigarette companies target children with their advertising?"

  2. Identify main concepts:

    • EXAMPLE:  "How do cigarette companies target children with their advertising?"

  3. Brainstorm synonyms, related terms, broader, and narrower terms based on your own background knowledge:

    • ​​​​​​​EXAMPLE:

      • ​​​​​​​Cigarette companies:  Philip Morris, Camel, Imperial

      • Children:  child, adolescent, teen, teenager, students, youth

      • Advertising:  ads, marketing, commercials, promotions, product placement

  4. Avoid the following:

    • Abbreviations - spell them out

    • Relationship words - words like compare, contrast, causation, etc.

    • Judgement words - words like best, worst, pro, con, etc.

  5. If needed, search Wikipedia and other reference sources to further develop your list of keywords.

Keywords can be:

  • synonyms

  • related terms

  • scientific terms/what the experts say 

  • names of experts in the field (scientist? historian?)

  • different words to describe the same thing in the past vs. today (Great War vs WWI)

  • broader ideas

  • narrower ideas

  • alternate spellings (Ex: Ojibwe, Ojibwa)

  • specific examples (Ex: eutrophication -> Lake Okeechobee)