KYVL: Information Skills Tutorial, Unit 2: What is a keyword?
Selecting keywords
Information Skills Tutorial
Unit 2: Basic Searching
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Topic: What is a keyword?

Lesson
Practice



Lesson

A keyword is one of the main ideas from your thesis statement. It identifies the topics for which you will be searching. There will be two or more keywords in each thesis statement. If our thesis statement is — "I plan to research how gun control affects the crime rate," the keywords, or main ideas would be:gun control, affects, and crime rate. Next, brainstorm for synonyms of the keywords. A synonym is a word that has a similar meaning.


Where else can you come up with synonyms?
Why don’t you try
Merriam-Websters’ online.
You could also look in a thesaurus or talk with friends, classmates, faculty, or a librarian.
There is also a special library resource you can use–the Library of Congress Subject Headings . . .


Practice

1.If your thesis statement was "What are the best ways to prevent teens from smoking?" What would your best keywords be?
A. teens; prevent; smoking
B. what; the; ways
C. smoking

2.If your topic was the effects of pot smoking, what are some other words or terms you might use?
A. birth defects, babies, mothers
B. causes, addiction, cocaine
C. drugs, marijuana, results, cannabis

Unit 2: 5 of 17


Last Updated: 03/03/2000
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