Another important step in a good research strategy is to identify your topic's central ideas ormain concepts. Try writing down your topic or research question and thenidentifying 2-4 main concepts.
Example Topic:The effect ofsocial media useoncollegestudents’ sleep.
Example Research Question: What measures can college students take to effectively limit social media's negative effects on their sleep?
| Concept 1 | Concept 2 | Concept 3 |
|---|---|---|
| social media | college students | sleep |
Once you've identified the main concepts,generate a list ofsearch terms(orkeywordsandkey phrases)under each concept. Considerrelated terms or synonyms(e.g., social media and social networks),broader terms (online behavior or internet), and more specific terms (e.g., Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, X):
| MAIN CONCEPTS: | social media | college students | sleep |
|---|---|---|---|
| SEARCH TERMS: | social networks | university students undergraduates students young adults | rest sleep quality sleep loss sleep deprivation insomnia naps |
In general, you can leave out these kinds of abstract terms along with connector words like "in," "of," or "on."
Notice that we didn't include the word "effect" in our search terms even though it's part of the topic. Terms that describe connections between concepts, such as "cause," "effect," "relationship," "impact," "purpose," and "trends" are ambiguous, making them ineffective search terms. The relationships are implied by searching for both concepts together.
