Search Strategies
1. Brainstorm keywords, related terms and synonyms. Examples...
- aggression, violence
- video games, gaming
- children, adolescents, preteens, teens, teenagers, girls, boys
2. Use AND to focus your search on a smaller result set. Examples...
- video games AND violence AND teens
- violence AND teens AND prevention
3. Use OR to link synonyms and gain a larger result set. Examples...
- video games AND (teenagers OR adolescents OR teens)
- video games AND (violence OR aggression)
4. Put quotations around your terms for exact searches
Example: "video games"
"social media"
The keywords you come up with represent the concepts and themes you're exploring. You can incorporate keywords into a question, and as you explore your topic in more depth you can turn that question into a hypothesis. For example:
1. Keywords: teens, violence, prevention
2. Question: How can violence between teenagers be prevented?
3. Hypothesis: Violence between teenagers can be prevented using anger management programs in schools.