Skip to Main Content

*The Research Process: A Guide for GWC Students

Use library resources to locate and evaluate information for your class assignments.

Identifying Keywords

The keywords you use can have a profound impact on the results of your research.

Using the “right” words will speed up the research process, while the “wrong” words can bring to it to a halt.

Before you can begin searching for information, you need to identify keywords related to your topic. Key terminology can be easily be found by scanning:

If you are still struggling:

  • Use a thesaurus to identify synonyms.
  • Find pictures related to your topic, then describe them.
  • Brainstorm keywords with a librarian, your instructor, or a friend.

Tip!

Facebook logo Twitter logoStruggling to identify #keywords based on your #topic?

Try this instead... what words would you #hashtag if you were posting to a #social network feed?

Keyword Generator and Visual Dictionary

Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License unless noted otherwise .