Tips for Choosing and Using Keywords

writers of the harlem renaissance harlem renaissance writers

african american writers 20th century afro american

black poets OR novelists black novelists AND poets

If you are conducting an author or a title search, the search term is evident. But for other types of searches, the most effective search terms might not be so evident.

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For information on a topic, the most common and the best kind of search is a usually a keyword search.

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Find the words that are key

Definition of keyword: The word or words that relate to a particular topic. Keywords or phrases are used to construct a search statement to find information.

From Library eTutor Glossary at www.utas.edu.au/library/etutor/main/webzglos.htm

Image: Microsoft Clip Art

Follow these suggestions for choosing and using keywords:

1. Find the words that are key.

2. Don’t use too many words.

3. Use nouns.

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3. Connect a series of keywords

with Boolean operators AND, OR, NOT.

4. Use a variety of keywords, such as synonyms and related words.

5. Use more than one word to find information on a specific aspect of a topic.

If you were assigned to write a paper on the effects of global warming on our environment, you would first select the most important word or words in the statement, the keywords.

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Quick Quiz

Which two words would you use as the keywords for this assignment?

Write a five-page paper on the effects of global warming.

Answer: global warming

Don’t use too many words

• Limit your search term to one, two, three, or—at the most—four words.

• You would not use all the words that your instructor used to describe your research assignment, such as the effects of global warming on our environment.

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Quick Quiz

Would these words make a good search term? Why?

The effects of global warming on our environment

Answer: No, these are too many words.

Use nouns (words that namepeople, places, things and ideas) as

keywords

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Noun

Avoid using the following parts of speech as keywords:

• Verbs (words that name action or condition)

• Adjectives (words that describe things)

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Avoid using the following parts of speech as

keywords--continued

• Adverbs (words like slowly, very, easy, and about that tell how and to what extent something was done or appears)

• Articles (the, a, an)

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Avoid using the following parts of speech as

keywords--continued

• Prepositions (words like at, in, under, into, etc., that show relationships among words)

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If you don’t know what part of speech a word is, look it up in a dictionary.

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In the phrase the effects of global warming on our environment, the underlined words are not nouns.

That leaves these words: effects, global warming, environment as keywords.

Quick Quiz

Which words in the following statement

are keywords?

The disadvantages of using Facebook

Answer: disadvantages

Facebook

Connect keywords with the Boolean operators AND, OR,

NOT

AND AND

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When the keywords are two or more words, use AND to connect them for results with the words combined.

Note: Putting the words in quotation marks also yields results with the terms used together.

“ ”

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Use AND to limit results to those

containing all the connected terms.

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For example, if the keywords are bacon

AND eggs, the results will include both

words used together.

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Use OR to expand the results to

those containing the keywords

together and separately.

For example, if the keywords are bacon OR

eggs, some results will include bacon only,

some eggs only, and others both bacon and

eggs.

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Use NOT to exclude a term from the results.

For example, if the keywords are

eggs NOT bacon, your results will be limited

to those containing eggs. (Hold the bacon.)

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You may need more than one word to find information on a specific aspect of a topic.

AND AND AND

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If you are searching for cat stories, for example, the one keyword cat would be too broad and would yield many irrelevant results, such as cats as pets cat diseases, kinds of cats, etc.

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If you were searching for cat stories, you would add other words to limit your results to what you want specifically, for example, cat fiction, fiction cats, cat stories, feline fiction.

The Cat

Who

Went FishingImage and sound: Microsoft Clip Art

For the most results, use a variety of terms, such as synonyms and related words.

In addition to using a dictionary to find synonyms, consult a thesaurus, which lists synonyms and antonyms. You can find a thesaurus in the library.

Thesaurus

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From a thesaurus entry for the word love:

Synonyms affection, attachment, devotion, fondnessRelated Word like(s), liking, regard; adoration, idolatry, piety, worship; allegiance, fealty, fidelity, loyalty; emotion, sentiment; crush, infatuation, passion, yearning; ardency, ardor, enthusiasm, fervor, zeal

From Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Thesaurus Image: Microsoft Clip Art

• Tip: Also look for other words related to your keyword in your search results. In an article about hip hop music, for example, you might see rap as a related term.

Image and sound: Microsoft Clip Art

Quick Quiz

If you were searching for information onappropriate dress in a school environment,which of the following would you use as keywords?

A. The appropriate way to dress in a school environment

B. Correct dressC. School dressD. School

C, school dress, is the correct answer.

A has too many words for an effective search and includes unnecessary words like the, to, in and a.

B does not limit the result of the search to school dress.

D does not limit the results to dress.

Credits

ImagesSlide 1 – C. G. O’Kelly LibrarySlides 2 &3 – Business Source PremierOther images and sounds – Microsoft Clip Art

Library eTutor Glossary www.utas.edu.au/library/etutor/main/webzglos.htm

Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Thesaurus

©2008 Phyllistine Poole, C. G. O’Kelly Library Winston-Salem State University