Identify your research topic/question:
For example, “What role does nature play in Margaret Atwood’s novel Oryx and Crake?”
Identify the major concepts in your topic:
Nature, “Oryx and Crake”, Margaret Atwood
Create a list of keywords:
Build upon some of your major concept keywords with related words and synonyms. A thesaurus can help with this.
For example, Nature: natural, environment, landscape, natural world, ecology, ecosystem…
Do background research:
Sometimes some background research is needed to identify a few more keywords. For example, genetic engineering, “MaddAdam Trilogy”, Crakers…
These keywords were found by looking through the novel “Oryx and Crake”
Keep a working list of keywords:
Keep adding and crossing out keywords as you learn more about your topic and learn what keywords work best for the information you need.
Start simple:
Start with simple searches and add in or change the keywords in your as you go on.. For example, “Oryx and Crake” AND Nature OR Natural
