Brooklyn College Library LibGuides Home: Research Guide for Students: Key words and Narrowing

Key Words work best

Write down your key terms and think about synonyms that will capture different results in your searches:

bensonhurst immigra* assimilation
brooklyn chinese-american attitude*
urban asian gentrification

Link keywords together using and. Use or for synonyms and related terms. Use quotes for exact phrases.
e.g. “second generation” and immigra* and (poverty or economic)
immigra* and brooklyn and (inequality or bias or prejudice)

Library Research is Puzzling! Scene 1: Identifying Keywords

Constructing a Keyword Search: Next Steps

1. Pull out your keyword(s).

2. Your keyword is ready to fit into the search you will construct to solve the research puzzle.

3. Consider additional keywords to add that might help your search.

4. Use the Boolean connector "AND" to join keywords that you want to find together in articles.

5. You now have a search sequence of connected keywords.

Keyword Assignment - English 1012 Prof. Andrew Stone

1. Choose one of the information sources below (video, audio or text) and review the source.

2. Select keywords or short terms (2-3 consecutive words) that capture what is important about the source. Select up to five keywords or terms for the source you choose.