Translating Your Question into Search Words

Identify Main Concepts and Keywords

If you have a research question, you may be tempted to type the whole question into a search box and begin searching for answers. It's a good idea to pause and develop search terms, sometimes known as keywords, before you begin.

Why? Other writers (especially writers of scholarly articles, essays and books) don’t always use the same terminology we do to describe topics, so it’s important to brainstorm ideas for the words that might be used to describe your search concept. Break your search question into primary concepts and then think about possible synonyms for each concept. (Synonyms here can include related phrases as well as exact synonyms.)

For example, if your research question is:

How does family support affect the success of undergraduate students in college today?

You might break it down like this:

Main Concept	Synonym 1	Synonym 2	Synonym 3	Synonym 4
family support	parents	family relationships	financial support	emotional support
success	academic success	grades	achievement in college
undergraduate students	undergraduates	new college students	freshmen

 

Here is an excellent video on turning your question into keywords you can use for searching.