9.4 Using Effective Keywords in Your Research
Robin Jeffrey and Johannah White
Good research involves using creativity in your searching. If you have taken the time to think through what types of information you want and what types of sources you want that information from, then you are already off to a great start in terms of searching creatively.
But another key step in good research is in thinking about using effective keywords. Keywords are just what they sound like—the keys to doing quality searches that reveal the information you need.
Some Tips for Getting the Results That You Want from a Search
- Use quotation marks. Are you searching for a phrase? Put it in quotation marks: “textbook affordability” will get you results for that exact phrase.
- Use AND/+. Are you searching for two terms that you think are topically related? Use AND (or +) to connect them: education AND racism, or education + racism, will only bring up results that include both terms.
- Use NOT/- to limit what you don’t want. Are you searching for a term that’s commonly associated with a topic you don’t want to learn about? Use NOT (or -) in front of the keyword you don’t want results from: articles NOT magazines, or articles – magazines, will bring up results that are about articles, but exclude any results that also include the term magazines.
- Use an asterisk to get a variety of word endings. Do you want to get back as many results on a topic as possible? Use * at the end of a word for any letters that might vary: smok*, will bring up results that include the term smoke, smoking, and smokers.
- Remember to search terms, not entire phrases or sentences. Databases do not understand whole sentences like you and I. They only understand keywords, subject headings, the names of authors and titles of newspapers, magazines, journals, and books. And do test out synonyms for your core keywords. This video helps to explain how you can play around with key terms:
“Search Keywords Tutorial” by Ray W. Howard Library at Shoreline Community College
Research Strategy: Coming Up with Keywords for Your Topic
- What are three core keywords (using the guidelines in the video above) that you can use in a search for your topic?
- Synonyms can save your search. If the database does not recognize your search term, it will not give good (or any) search results. If you search again using the synonym for your term, you may find a lot of good material.
- Is there a phrase related to your research topic that you would benefit from searching “in quotation marks”?
- What are your NOT words—the words that you want to exclude from your search?
- Looking at the keywords you’ve generated so far, are there any words in which a hash sign would be helpful? Example: wom#n would bring results including the words “woman” and “women.”
PRO TIP: Using a worksheet or making notes about your search terms, especially the most successful ones, will help you go through your search process.
Attribution: This page contains material from “About Writing: A Guide” by Robin Jeffrey, OpenOregon Educational Resources, Higher Education Coordination Commission: Office of Community Colleges and Workforce Development is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Further editing and additional content written by Johannah White for the LOUIS OER Dual Enrollment course development program to create “English Composition II” and has been licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 
