Professional Documents
Culture Documents
This guide demonstrates how to choose keywords for search engines, book catalogs, and library databases. You
can view a video of this topic at http://libguides.seminolestate.edu/tutorials/chooseterms. Some of this
information was taken from Seminole State College’s library website.
Three-Step Process
From your thesis statement or research question, identify the main concepts or keywords. By creating a list of
keywords, you will be able to construct better and more efficient searches. These in turn will lead you to more
plentiful and relevant information supporting your thesis.
Follow the three-step process below for discovering keywords. It is helpful to keep track of the keywords on a
sheet of paper or a word processing document for reference.
Now it is your turn to come up with search terms (or keywords) for your research. List as many as you can think
of in the space provided below. Highlights or circle the words that help you find what you are looking for when
you use them to search.
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Bullying Bullying causes Why do people bully Bullying trauma Bullying reasons Bullies
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Bully Bullying effects Bully behavior Bullying implications Bully & peers
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School Bullying Workplace bullying Bullying Cultures Culture Bullying American Bullying
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Children Bullying Teen Bullying Bullying perception Bullied Academic bullying
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Creating Search Statements
This guide demonstrates how to create search statements for use in research tools like library databases, online
catalogs, and search engines. Some of this information was taken from Seminole State College’s library website.
Phrase Searching
Enclose phrases, proper names, and titles with quotation marks. Adding quotations keeps all the words
together so the search engine, database, or library catalog does not search for them as individual words.
Examples:
physical activity → "physical activity"
Affordable Care Act → "Affordable Care Act"
Ernest Hemingway → "Ernest Hemingway"
Boolean Term: OR
Use OR to search with synonyms and expand results. With OR, you tell the search system that you are equally
interested in multiple terms. This is an ideal to search strategy to use with synonyms and is very effective when
combined with an AND term.
Examples:
→ "physical activity" OR exercise
→ elderly OR "aging adults" OR "older adults"
→ running OR cardio AND obesity
Now it is your turn to come up with search statements for your research. List as many as you can think of in the
space provided below. Make sure to use the Boolean terms (and, or, not). Highlights or circle the statements that
help you find what you are looking for when you use them to search.
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Bullying AND children Bullying AND school Bullying AND culture Bullying NOT fighting
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Bullying OR harassment Bullying NOT Friendly Bullying NOT competition Bullying AND workplace
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Bullying OR tormenting Bullying OR intimidation Bullying AND peers Bullying AND intimidation
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Bullying AND Bullied Bullying AND Problems Bullying AND Victims Bullying AND power
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