WR121 Pons

The first step to brainstorming search terms is having an initial topic or thesis statement to work with. Not there yet? Spend five minutes choosing a focused topic, then come back here.

Ready?

Step 1. Take a piece of paper or open up a document and write down your topic or thesis statement.

Example:

Step 2. Circle or highlight the most important individual ideas that make up your topic.

Example:

Words you don't need to search for and why: 

• it, to, and, of - articles and prepositions can usually be ignored because they are so common.
• should, be, use, for, relationship - adjectives and words that indicate a relationship between two ideas can usually be ignored because they may eliminate otherwise relevant results from your search. The more search terms you add to your search, the fewer results you will get.
• pro, con, for, against - rather than using words that convey opinions about topics, use nouns that help you learn about your topic(s) from every angle.

Step 3. Think about other words or phrases that have similar meanings to each idea – basically, brainstorm synonyms. Write down at least one similar or related term for each idea.

If you’re having a tough time thinking of terms, do a basic search on the main idea. (In this example, animals in entertainment might be the main idea.) Skim through an article or webpage for additional or alternate terms – sometimes seeing how an author writes about a topic helps.

We all use it - now let's learn to use it better! Improving your Googling skills will save you time and make it easier to identify better sources of information. Tips and tricks are explained below.

1. Use quotation marks around your search terms to search for the words in the exact order you would like, instead of separately.

1. Use intitle: to retrieve webpages with your keywords in the title of the webpage

1. Use site:. to retrieve webpages from URLs in the domain (.gov, .edu, .org) you specify.  

1. Use - (a hyphen or minus sign) in front of words to exclude them from your search results.

1. Use OR in between words to have either or both of the words included in your search results. OR must be capitalized. This is a good way to search for synonyms.

In the above example, Google will find results that include (election AND fraud) and (voter AND fraud).

1. Use filetype: to retrieve specific types of files (instead of html webpages). Works for finding most file types.

1. Use several strategies at once for very specific results.