Online Searching Basics -
Question Analysis & Identifying
Keywords
In order to most effectively use the capabilities of an online database, you must first be able to identify the keywords that describe the main concepts of your research topic.
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You should be able to state your topic in one sentence, two at most
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If you cannot concisely say what you want, think about it some more
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Write down your sentence
Example: I need articles on censoring the words in music.
After
you have written your topic sentence, look at it and pick out the two or three
main ideas (concepts) that identify your topic:
Concept 1
Concept 2
censoring
words in music
Ignore small words such as with, the, by, and, to, an, from, for. Each concept should be expressed in just a word or a short phrase. Jot down each of these concepts on the Question Analysis Worksheet.
Not every word in the search topic becomes a concept for searching. Typically, two or three concepts (sometimes only one) will do to describe the topic without being too specific or too general. The actual number depends on your search.
Now that you have identified the important concepts, you will need to think of all of the different words that could be used to express these ideas. For instance, lyrics, music, CD or album could all be used interchangeably to refer to the idea of “words in music”. Enter these terms on the Question Analysis Worksheet.
Just as you can use different words, you can also use different tenses and the plural or singular forms of words to express your concepts. Planning and listing all the ways that a concept might be referred to is very important. If you need help finding the right words, try a thesaurus to determine synonyms.
Complete the Question Analysis Worksheet, listing Narrower Terms and Broader Terms to use to discuss your concepts.
Adapted from
Hensley, R. B. and Hanson, E. Designs
for Active Learning, ed. By Gail Gradowski, Loanne Snavely, and Paula
Dempsey, 57. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, 1998.
