Selecting a Research Topic and Finding Search Terms

When you are just beginning a database search, it is often confusing if you find too many results (or possibly no results), especially if they don't seem to be very close to what you thought you were searching for.  This guide will help with some suggestions for focusing your search.

First of all, start with a strategy, such as:

• Write the topic down in the form of a sentence or a question.
• Pull out the key words or concepts
• Think of one or two synonyms for each concept
• If the database you are going to use has a thesaurus, go there and search for the concepts and synonyms you have thought of.  If related terms are suggested, review those, and possibly select and search a few.
• Search each main concept separately.
• Use the Boolean operators (and, or, not) to combine the results sets that you get in the previous step.

If you are having trouble thinking of search terms, the table below may help by providing a focus.  It is laid out in a way to identify groups of people, activities or action terms, places and locations, and disciplines or subject areas.  These keywords are only suggestions, you may have other words that will also work in a search strategy. You can choose any combination from the columns, but usually you need at least two concepts.

Now you are ready to start searching.  Go to the education database page and begin.

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For additional information or assistance, please contact:

Donna Nix
denix@stthomas.edu
Office: MOH 124, Mail: MOH 206, Charles J. Keffer Library
651-962-4662

This page was last updated on September 7, 2007