!
Quick check
Creating keywords for searching
Now that you have a research question, it's time to develop keywords for your search! The best way to find keywords is to identify the main concepts for your research question. For example, if your research question is 'How does aging affect memory loss?', your main concepts would be aging and memory loss. These concepts should represent the core ideas that you want to address as you conduct your research.
Library searches work differently than Google. Library searches look for keywords. You want to remove stop words (words that do not add significant meaning to a sentence) from your searches. Click the blue ⓘ for more info on stop words.
In this question, you would remove 'how', 'does', and 'affect', so that your search focuses on your main concepts: aging and memory loss.
Main concepts are the core ideas of a research questions.
Identifying main concepts
Quick check
Words like what, how, the, with, when, where and about are usually main concepts in a research question.
In this activity, click on the main concepts in each question. These are words that add significant meaning to the topic. These will be the keywords for each question.
What is the impact of advertising on *childhood obesity* ?
Does participation in *team sports* contribute to teenage self-esteem?
What are the effects of *caffeine intake* on pregnancy?
What can colleges do to reduce *binge drinking* in students?
What is the effect of *global warming* on penguins in Antarctica?