WCSU Libraries    Self-Help Guides    Basics of Library Research    Identify Main Concepts in Your Question and Create Search Statements

1. Identify Main Concepts in Your Question
2. Create Search Statements
3. Find Other Words to Express the Same Meaning

1. Identify Main Concepts in Your Question

   Once you have formulated a good research question/topic, you will need to pick out the words and phrases that are most important to your search. This is called identifying the main concepts and is necessary for searching databases.

   For example, let's say your research question is:

   Should the use of marijuana for medical purposes be legalized?

   Looking at the question word-by-word, let's see which words will actually be useful when you search for information:

   Should the use of marijuana for medical purposes be legalized?

   The useful words/concepts are in red. Notice the words chosen have some integral meaning - and they each describe a specific part of our question. We skipped words that were too common or generic (should, use, be, purposes, etc.)

2. Create Search Statements

   A search statement is a combination of words or concepts that you will use to input into a database to retrieve appropriate articles. When creating a search statement, you should try to get one word to described each part of your question.

   For example, using the concepts in our research question above, a search statement may look like this:

   marijuana AND medical AND legalized

   Notice the word AND in the search statement above! It is absolutely necessary to have that when searching in library databases - you may not need it on the web, but you need it in article and book databases.

3. Find Other Words to Express the Same Meaning

   Think about your question and words creatively - how else can you express the same idea? Are there any other words that may be useful?

   For example:

   marijuana = cannabis
   medical = therapeutic
   legalized = law

   Once you haved identified additional words, you can also create additional search statements! Look:

   cannabis AND medical AND law
   marijuana AND therapeutic AND legal
   cannabis and therapeutic and legalized

   A good searcher uses ALL techniques available!