What are the essential things a source will need to include to be relevant to you? These are the main concepts of your research question. One way to identify these concepts is to write out your research question and then circle the most important words.
The main concepts of this question are:
Then brainstorm other words you could use for each of your key concepts. Consider similar, narrower, and broader search terms for each of your main concepts. This creates a word bank of options to help you find great sources. Don't forget formal and official language. That is often the language found in academic articles and books.
Not sure where to start? Try searching online for possible terms.
Each word you try in your search will return different results.
| Qualities | |
| Similar | Characteristics |
| Narrower | Benefits, strengths |
| Even more narrow | Durability, producibility, insulation, strength, cost, flexibility |
In this example, qualities is already pretty broad. so I didn't worry when I couldn't think of a broader term. Instead, I got more specific. However, if I had started with a word like durability, I would have a lot of broader terms to try!
This final six minutes of our "Search Tips and Tricks" video walks through essential ways to troubleshoot a search.
Tools like these help you find better search results more quickly.
Use the limiter site: to filter which websites your results are from. Add your own search terms after that.
Ask for websites that end with a certain domain name that may be more reliable or relevant.
Search an entire website from the back end with Google.
Add quotation marks around a word or phrase in a Google search to:
Find the Tools button at the top of your search results. When toggled, new options will be revealed, like the option to filter results by the date they were published. You may also choose to use the Google advanced search to get more specific!