Keywords
What is a keyword?
Keywords are words related to your topic.
They are the BIG IDEA WORDS about your topic.
You can use keywords to search for information on your topic.
How do I come up with a list of keywords?
Your keywords come from your thesis statement/topic sentence/research question. No matter what you call it, you can use the central research question or idea to generate a list of keywords to use in your search.
To create a list of keywords, look at the main ideas in your research topic then make a list of synonyms and related terms that you can use to search.
When you are searching, changing up the terms that you are searching for will result in a change in your results, and hopefully lead you to some new and useful information.
To find the main ideas, look at the nouns in your topic.
If my thesis statement is: The rise of social media has led to an increase in body dissatisfaction among teenage girls.
Some keywords could be:
|
Social Media |
Body dissatisfation |
Teenage girls |
|
|
Self image |
adolescents |
|
Snapchat |
Body image |
Young adults |
|
Selfies |
Body positivity |
Teen |
|
Social media influencers |
Self esteem |
female |
Research topic - Marijuana should be legalized.
This research topic needs to be more well-defined and focused in order to be effective. The best way to do this is by reading more. Creating a list of keywords is a good way to narrow down a research topic.
Keywords can even become points that you can build your body paragraphs around.
|
Marijuana |
legalized |
|
cannibis |
decriminalized |
|
Medical marijauna |
Medical use |
|
Recreational marijuana |
Recreational use |
How to use Keywords
Use an online Thesaurus to look up synonyms to your main concepts.