Think about Search Terms
Use your background information to think of appropriate search terms. Brainstorm every possible search term for your topic.Try to think of synonyms and related words for each keyword to help broaden or narrow your search.
Look at your topic. For example: ‘Are Canadian youth politically engaged?’ The keywords in this topic would be Canadian, youth, and political engagement.
These keywords can become:
See Also
What is Research?- Canadian→ Canada
- Youth → "young people", "young adults", or adolescents
- "Political engagement" → vote, voting, politics, elections, or "political participation"
Example: Brainstorming Search Terms
My research question was ‘Can alternative energy sources help stop global warming?’
For this question, the keywords would be alternative energy sources, and global warming. So, some search terms could be:
- global warming → climate change, temperature change, greenhouse effect
- alternative energy sources → sustainable energy, renewable energy source, alternative fuels or environmental technology
