Keywords+and+Synonyms+G

=Welcome ! = =Definition of the Technique:=

Keywords: a technique in which the researcher breaks down the topic question into several words or phrases that summarizes and represents the main concepts. This technique helps the researcher obtain more information when these words are typed in a search engine such as google (Barlow). 'FCC' 'wireless' 'communication' (Flanagan)
 * [examples]:** what did the FCC say about the wireless communications industry



Synonyms: a technique in which the researcher find an alternative word with a similar meaning. This technique helps the researcher to obtain more information efficiently from a research.
 * [examples]:** Aboriginal or Indigenous; university or college (Quinn)

=How to efficiently use Keywords and Synonyms in searches=

Key words and synonyms search allows you to look as broadly or as specific as you want into the topic depending upon the word you use. Usually, it is best to use specific words more than one word. This is done to avoid irrelevant search results (O'Connor). The following techniques are effective ways of using key words and synonyms in order to make the search process efficient (O'Connor).


 * Before beginning the search, make a list of key words relating to your topic
 * Find appropriate synonyms for those key words, ensuring that the meaning remains the same
 * Try these keywords and synonyms in search engines like Google
 * Try combining words in the best way possible
 * If you are looking for information that is specific to a certain topic, use “disciplined specific terms” which are pertinent only to the information you are looking for
 * From the preliminary search, if you find any that relate to your topic, skim through the article and find more keywords that may make your search more effective
 * If the results you get are still very broad and off topic, you can use specific brands or hyponyms associated with your topic
 * When searching and using keywords, make sure to consider different ways of spelling and different terms used in different cultures for the same thing
 * Attempt to mix keywords and use them in a different order

=Examples of how to use the technique=

__ Example 1 __

Topic/Question: Total death toll during the World War II period

Keywords: WWII death toll Synonyms: death toll → casualties, death count

__Example 2__
 * Note that when typing the keywords in search engines like Google, World War II could be typed in as WWII, WW2, World War Two, or World War II.

Topic/ Question: What events transpired the fall of the Spanish empire?

Some keywords to use:

Spanish empire Spanish monarchy Fall of Spanish Empire 18th century Spain Age of Exploration Legacy left by Spain __ Example 3 __

Topic/ Question: What caused the Black Monday of 1929?

Some Keywords that can be used:

Black Monday Wall Street crash 1929 Black Monday 1929 1929 Depression 1929 Stock market crash


 * Refining the Search**

__Boolean AND__- with this search term, it means you want all the keywords in your query to appear in the document. You might use this to exclude common hits that are irrelevant to your search. Example, “heart” AND “attack” (Barlow).

__Boolean OR__- this means that you want at least one of your keywords to appear in the document. Example, “asthma”, “chronic” OR “bronchitis” (Barlow).

__Boolean NOT__- with this, it means that you want at least one of your keywords that you specified to not be included in the document. You might use this to exclude hits that are totally off base. Example, “apple” AND “computers” NOT “fruit” (Barlow).

__Capitalization__- this is important when searching for names of people, companies or products. Too bad many words in English are both names and common nouns- “Apple” “apple”, “Bill” “bill”, “Lotus” “lotus” (Barlow).

=Using the technique in=
 * 1) EBSCO**
 * 2) United Streaming**
 * 3) JSTOR**
 * 4) Google**
 * 5) WorldBook Online**



media type="file" key="Searching with EBSCOhost video.swf" width="540" height="540" align="center"

How to Improve Search Results with EBSCO
When searching EBSCO//host// the goal is to be as specific as possible to narrow search results. However, occasionally, a message will be received that says **no search results were found**. In these situations, you should correct keywords or try to have more of a broad term that will yield more results. With either of these situations there are //**limiters**// and //**expanders**//. These words can specify your search or broaden your search (EBSCO Support).

In searches, avoid stop words such as these: The stop words included here particularly pertain to EBSCOhost, but, they are also similar to the stop words in other search engines.
 * An || For || So ||
 * And || However || The ||
 * Are || If || There ||
 * As || In || To ||
 * At || Is || Was ||
 * Be || Not || Were ||
 * Because || Of || Whatever ||
 * Been || On || Whether ||
 * But || Or || Would ||

To find the right keywords, think of your topic, and try to eliminate these words shown from your search. These words are considered **stop words.** Stop words are considered as **over used words that search engines automatically ignore.** (Stanford NLP)

For example, if you search //**"flights to London"**//, a search engine will interpret this as, "//**flights London",**// and create a set of lists that apply to //**flights to London, flights, and London**//.

Search engines ignore stop words in order to get more relevant search results and save storage space. The table below shows common stop words:

HOST ||  JSTOR  ||
 * Common words ||   G o o g l e   ||  EBSCO
 * A || As || Because || Because ||
 * An || Are || Been || Both ||
 * And || At || However || During ||
 * Are || Have || If || Either ||
 * As || I || On || How ||
 * At || If || Or || However ||
 * Be || Not || So || Never ||
 * But || On || There || Now ||
 * By || Or || To || Only ||
 * For || Out || Was || Same ||
 * From || So || Were || Said ||
 * Had || That || Whatever || Theirs ||
 * Have || This || Whether || Therefore ||
 * Her || Was || Would || Under ||
 * His || With ||  || Until ||
 * In || You ||  || What ||
 * Is ||  ||   || When ||
 * It ||  ||   || Where ||
 * Not ||  ||   || Which ||
 * Of ||  ||   || Who ||
 * The ||  ||   || Would ||
 * ||  ||   || *there are many more ||

=Problems With Keyword Searching= Keyword searches usually have a difficult time distinguishing between words that are spelled the same, but mean something different. This will often result in hits that are completely irrelevant to your query. Search engines also have problems with something called stemming. For example, if you enter the word “big”, should the engine return a hit on the word “bigger”? The same goes for singular and plural words, along with different verb tenses, such as past tense. (Barlow)

Search engines are also unable to return hits on keywords that mean the same thing, but is not actually entered as a query. For example, a query on heart disease will not return a hit of a document on “cardiac” but instead only the word “heart”. (Barlow) 

=**Try this Challege!**= Think you've learned enough about keywords and synonyms? Try this fun website to test your new skills! [] (IMSA)

=**Works Cited**= Barlow, Linda. "How to use Web Search Engines." __Monash Research__. 05 Nov. 2004. 17 Sept. 2010. <[]>.  Bray, Tim. "On Search: Stopwords." __TBray__. 7 Nov. 2003. 23 Sept. 2010. <[]>.  <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Detailed Searching." __JSTOR__. 23 Sept. 2010. <[]>. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Dropping common terms: stop words." __The Stanford NLP (Natural Language Processing) Group__. 2008 Cambridge University Press. 21 Sept. 2010 <http://nlp.stanford.edu/IR-book/html/htmledition/dropping-common-terms-stop-words-1.html>. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Flanagan, Debbie. "Using Search Engines - A Tutorial." __Researching Your Family Tree__: An Introduction to Genealogy. Fort Lauderdale. 17 Sept. 2010. <[]>. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Improving Search Results." __EBSCO Support__. 23 Sept. 2010 <http://support.ebsco.com/help/index.php?help_id=3778>. IMSA. "Internet Search Challenge." __IMSA__. 23 Sept. 2010 <[]>.

Keywords. Digital image. __DevCentral.__ 23 Sept. 2010. <[]>.

Quinn, Ruth. "Workshop 1 - Search Techniques - Keywords and Truncation." __Blackboard Learn__. 24 July 2008. 17 Sept. 2010. <http://learnline.cdu.edu.au/researchingskills/workshop1/techniques.html>.

Synonyms. Digital image. __BRANDing__. 23 Sept. 2010. <[]>.

"What Are Stop Words and How Does EBSCOhost Handle Them?" __EBSCO__. Aug. 2010. 23 Sept. 2010. <[]>.

//__By: Shloka, Nico, Young Sun, Yewon, Samata, Hong, Yurie__//