In order to identify keywords, you need to have a research question. Having a research question is much easier than just a topic. Topics are often too broad to give you relevant results.
To create a research question, think about the parameters of your assignment. Is there an area that you are particularly interested in? Pick a broad topic that you find interesting--remember that you are going to be spending time researching this topic.
Say you picked the topic "video games." Now we need to focus your topic. To do this, ask the 4 W's:
So say you choose:
Form this information into a question:
Are children who play video games more likely to be violent?
What are Keywords?
"Keywords are the words and phrases that people type into search engines to find what they're looking for. For example, if you were looking to buy a new jacket, you might type something like “mens leather jacket” into Google. Even though that phrase consists of more than one word, it's still a keyword."
Source: ahrefs blog
To choose keywords for your search, look at your research question:
Are children who play video games more likely to be violent?
Choose words from within your question that are the most important to your search. So, in this example, you would choose "children," "video games," and "violent."
Alternative keywords
Sometimes including synonyms to the words you use while doing a search can actually pull up more results.
For example: take each of your keywords and try to come up with synonyms for them. List as many as you can.
Use some of these alternative search terms. Mix and match when doing a search to see what brings up the most relevant information.
Combine different search terms with AND to narrow your results:
For example:
"video games" AND children
Combine search terms with OR to expand your results. This works best with similar search terms, such as "video games" OR "computer games." But you can also use different search terms.
For example:
"video games" OR gaming
Combine similar search terms with NOT in order to narrow and limit your results:
For example:
children NOT teens
