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. ?

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

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

Find the words that are key. Don’t use too many words. Use nouns. Follow these suggestions for choosing and using keywords: Find the words that are key. Don’t use too many words. Use nouns. Image: Microsoft Clip Art

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. Image: Microsoft Clip Art

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. Image: Microsoft Clip Art

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 name people, places, things and ideas) as keywords Images: Microsoft Clip Art

Avoid using the following parts of speech as keywords: Verbs (words that name action or condition) Adjectives (words that describe things) Image: Microsoft Clip Art

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) Image: Microsoft Clip Art

Avoid using the following parts of speech as keywords--continued Prepositions (words like at, in, under, into, etc., that show relationships among words) Images: Microsoft Clip Art

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

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 Image: Microsoft Clip Art

“ ” 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. “ ” Image: Microsoft Clip Art

Use AND to limit results to those containing all the connected terms. Microsoft Clip Art

For example, if the keywords are bacon AND eggs, the results will include both words used together. Image: Microsoft Clip Art

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. Images: Microsoft Clip Art

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.) Image: Microsoft Clip Art

You may need more than one word to find information on a specific aspect of a topic. AND AND AND Image: Microsoft Clip Art

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. Images and sound: Microsoft Clip Art

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 Fishing Image and sound: Microsoft Clip Art

For the most results, use a variety of terms, such as synonyms and related words. Thesaurus 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. Image: Microsoft Clip Art

From a thesaurus entry for the word love: Synonyms affection, attachment, devotion, fondness Related 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 on appropriate dress in a school environment, which of the following would you use as keywords? The appropriate way to dress in a school environment Correct dress School dress 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 Images Slide 1 – C. G. O’Kelly Library Slides 2 &3 – Business Source Premier Other 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