Focus Your Search
Identify the main concepts of your search. What do you want to know about your topic?
Frame your topic as a question
Identify the sub-topics and look for information on those
Find synonyms and related terms that can be combined with your keywords to make your search either narrow or broad, depending on what you are looking
Let's make our topic: What is the relationship between cell phone use and sleep quality in adolescents?
Possible Search Terms:
cell phone | sleep quality | adolescents |
mobile phone | sleep hygiene | teenagers |
portable phone | somnolence | youth |
Putting the Search together:
("cell phone" OR "mobile phone" OR "portable phone") AND ("sleep quality" OR "sleep hygiene" OR somnolence) AND (adolescents OR teenagers OR youth)