Brainstorming Keywords (Handout)
Welcome to the tutorial on brainstorming keywords.
In this tutorial, you’ll learn:

reasons why you might brainstorm keywords

how to identify the key concepts in your topic, and

how to brainstorm for keywords
Reasons for Brainstorming Keywords:
There are usually several different ways to describe a concept that you are researching.
The first word that comes to your mind for a concept may not be the word used by an
author writing about that topic, but brainstorming can help make sure that you think of
these additional words and include them in your search.
Another reason to brainstorm keywords is that it helps you focus on terms instead of
phrases. This is important because the library databases and catalogs depend on
terms, not phrases, unlike Google.
For example, if you are writing a paper on the behavioral effects of watching violent
television on children you could type that phrase in Google and get lots of results.
Here’s how Google uses the phrase you enter:
1.
First it finds documents where the whole phrase is anywhere on a page.
2.
Then it searches for documents where words from the phrase appear near each
other on the page.
3.
Then, if it can’t find any documents that meet those criteria, Google searches for
documents where some of the words from your phrase appear somewhere on the page.
When you use library databases or catalogs, the search engine only goes through the
first step – finding the entire phrase in a document. Using keywords instead of phrases
ensures that your search returns more relevant articles. While it may take a little more
preparation up front, using the library’s resources can help you find high quality
information on your topic.
Now that you know to use terms instead of phrases in your search, we’re going to focus
on how to choose the terms to use in your search. To begin this process, we’ll focus on
determining the key concepts of your topic. Key concepts are the underlying ideas that
you are researching. Usually, your topic will have more than one key concept – it’s not
unusual to have three or four.
Examples:
Topic
the representation of
women in film
the consequences of oil
spills on marine life
Key Concepts
“women” and “film”
“ oil spills” and “marine life”
Once you’ve got the key concepts for your topic, you’re ready to start brainstorming
keywords.
How to Brainstorm Keywords:
One way to get started brainstorming is to think of synonyms for your concepts.
Example:
Topic
Teenagers
Synonyms
teens, youth, or young
adults
To help think of synonyms, you can use a thesaurus or a keyword mapping tool, like
www.kwmap.net.
You should also think of narrower terms. Continuing with the concept of teenagers, you
might pick narrower terms such as high school students, teenage girls, or 17-yr olds.
To round out your brainstorming, think of broader terms or concepts related to your key
concept. For example, you could use terms such as children or students.
Sometimes you may have a hard time coming up with keywords during the
brainstorming process; this may happen because you are not familiar enough with your
topic to know the narrower and broader terms associated with it. To help you find
additional keywords, as well as learn more about your topic, you can use background
information.
Subject Encyclopedias:
One great source for background information is subject encyclopedias. You may be
familiar with general encyclopedias like Encyclopedia Britannica or World Book, which
provide an overview and basic facts about a wide range of topics. Subject
encyclopedias also provide an overview and basic facts, but they focus on a specific
subject and can therefore provide more detailed entries than general encyclopedias
can.
One easy way to locate subject encyclopedia entries on your topic is to use Gale Virtual
Reference Library, available through the Digital Library. This is a database consisting of
subject encyclopedia entries that enables you to search through the full-text of the
entries for your key concepts.
Summary:
In this tutorial on brainstorming keywords, you learned

why you should brainstorm keywords

how to identify the key concepts of your topic before brainstorming

and tips for brainstorming keywords.
Questions? Problems?
http://www.utdallas.edu/library/askalib/askalib.htm