Before you start searching on your topic, it's helpful to consider the various possible keywords you could use in searching. Here's why:
1. The more words you put into a database search, the fewer results you'll get, so breaking your research question or topic down into the most important keywords is critical.
2. Computers are clueless and don't know that certain words are used interchangeably. For example, they don't know that a word like salary means about the same thing as earnings, wages, or pay, so it's important to think of terms that mean the same thing.
3. The terms that you naturally think of when you think about your topic may not be the same words that experts use to write about the topic.
This requires you to think not only of the terms that naturally come to your mind, but to brainstorm terms that mean the same thing or are related. You can identify other keywords by looking for a Wikipedia entry on your topic or simply doing a Google search on your topic and seeing what related or synonymous words are used in the titles of results. For example, when I looked in the
Wikipedia entry for cult, I learned that most people who study cults use the term
new religious movements because it doesn't have such negative judgement attached. So had I just used the term
cult I would have missed out on most of the scholarship on the subject. Try to think of as many synonyms or related terms as you can.
Here's an example research question: Does the presence of a smartphone impact people's ability to pay attention in face-to-face conversations?
The most important keywords are
smartphone,
attention, and
face-to-face conversations. Now, I will brainstorm other keywords that are similar to those original terms:
Smartphone, Cell phone, Mobile phone, Mobile Device, Phone
Attention, Focus, Concentration, Distraction, Listening
Face-to-face conversation, Face-to-face interaction, Face-to-face communication, Face-to-face dialogue