Search Skills: Keywords

Example Topic:

How does social media cyberbullying affect teen mental health?

• Keywords start with the central topic—the nouns in the question.
  • How does social media cyberbullying  affect teen mental health ?
  • Keyword 1: cyberbullying
  • Keyword 2: mental health
• To focus the topic, add in the adverbs that answer 'who,' 'where,' or 'what' questions.
  • Cyberbullying where? On social media.
  • Keyword 3: social media
  • Affecting who? Teens.
  • Keyword 4: teens

A good research question will have your starting keywords in it. Sometimes you will be assigned a topic that is vague on purpose to allow many students to write about it in different ways. Turn a general topic into a research question first . 

What about subtopics?

• Subtopics may or may not be included in your searches depending on how long the paper is and how you have worded your research question.
• While you may go into your research with subtopics in mind, subtopics should change depending on what your research finds. 
• Stay open to going where articles lead you. 

Research is a cycle!

• Your topic and research question can shift as you learn more about the topic through the sources you find.

A Word of Caution:

• Library databases will search the keywords you gave them and only those.
• Library databases won't correct spelling mistakes.

Synonyms help a search find sources that use different terms than your keywords.

• Dictionaries, reference books, and a thesaurus can help.
• Consider spelling variations as well.
• Many databases will also suggest additional words.

Cyberbullying

• cyberbullying
• cyber bullying
• cyber-bullying
• online harassment
• online bullying

Mental health

• mental health
• mental wellness
• mental illness
• mental disorder
  • Specific disorders might become subtopics:
    • Anxiety
    • Depression
    • PTSD
    • Eating disorders
• psychiatric illness
• emotional health