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Strategy: Search Terms

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Decorative Chess Piece

 

Strategy: Develop Search Terms

Searching is driven by the words we use to conceptualize our topic or inquiry.  Searching requires creativity and persistence! We have a few tips here that may help. 

 

Step OneConsider your research questions or topic

 State your research question or topic. 

Example
Do video games increase violence in teens?
 

 

Step TwoIdentify key words or concepts  

 What are the key concepts? Think nouns and noun phrases.

Mountain Top By Alice Noir for the Noun ProjectTip: Get ideas from background research or textbooks.

Example Do video games increase violence  in teens?
Video Games      Violence      Teens
 

 

Step OneList Related Terms  

Consider how different people or communities talk about the concept.

Consider how language has changed over time.

Think of broader terms, narrower terms, or synonyms.

Mountain Top By Alice Noir for the Noun ProjectTip: Use a thesaurus or chat with a librarian.

Example violence, aggression, shootings, attacks
video games, gaming, gamers, computer games
teen, teens, teenagers

 

Step FourConsider Using Some Search Tricks

" quotations to search phrases.

* an asterisk to find word variations.

AND, OR, NOT to combine terms.  

Example "video games"
teen*
aggression OR violence

 

Search strategies in a few steps
Step 1: State your research topic: The impact of video games on violence in teens.
Step 2: Identify key terms: video games, teens, violence.
Step 3: Identify related terms. Violence= aggression, shootings, attacks. Video games= gaming, gamers, computer games. Teen= teens, teenagers, adolescents, youth.
Step 4: Apply search tricks
Use or to search for synonyms. Violence or aggression. Combine similar terms with or.
Use * to search word variations. Teen* will retrieve teen, teens, or teenagers.
Use
Combine it all with And.

 Mountains by Alice Noir from the Noun Project 

Next Complete your research strategies worksheet

Tags: terms