Part 1: Getting started with research

This part is designed to help you brainstorm search terms (or keywords) and develop search strategies to begin your research. It is a form of concept mapping – or mind mapping – which is a process for visualizing ideas and making connections between them.

We will use a modified process of concept mapping to focus on developing search strategies.

Make sure you have downloaded and opened the lesson worksheet in Microsoft Word to complete this part of the lesson. Instruction for the worksheet, along with an example, are provided below.

First, type your research question or thesis into the box at the top of the page.

Sample research question or thesis statement: What is the effect of exercise on the mental health of college students?
Example research question or thesis statement.

Next, highlight or change the text color of the most important words or phrases in your question. Each should be only 1-2 words long. These are your keywords. Focus on the most unique words, and ignore common words like the, on, effect, what, who, etc. Try to identify at least 2-3 keywords for your question.

The example research question continued from step one now highlights the most important words: exercise, mental health, and college students.
Highlighted most important words or phrases in the research question.

Now, type each keyword into a separate box.

Key words exercise, mental health, and college students each listed in 3 separate boxes
Separating key words into boxes.

Finally, list alternative words or phrases for each keyword underneath it in the corresponding box. Think about direct synonyms (i.e., physical activity for exercise) and words that may make your search broader (i.e., psychology for mental health) or narrower (i.e., undergraduates for college students).

alternative words or phrases for each keyword
Alternative words or phrases for each keyword.

When you are finished with your concept map, move on to the next section.

License

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Part 1: Getting started with research Copyright © 2020 by Holly Reiter and Cristina Colquhoun is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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