Keywords+and+Synonyms+(F)

8 HOW TO CHOOSE KEYWORDS

When you are on the Internet doing research or simply looking for some information, it is important to choose the right keywords so you get relevant results. Sometimes it helps to read some background information on your research topic before you generate keywords. The University of Colorado on Boulder created a simple three-step process for finding the most effective keywords (University of Colorado). Step 1: Identify your research topic Step 2: Identify the main concepts in your research topic  Step 3: Generate keywords related to your main concepts

**Example:** //Step 1: Identify your research topic// How does the performance of ISM's high school students compare to those that study at Brent?

//Step 2: Identify the main concepts in your research topic// In this case, we are comparing ISM students to Brent students; therefore we would need to include the school names in our keywords list. Since ISM is an acronym, typing that in could trigger other results which are not related to the school. It would be better to put “International School Manila” instead of “ISM” if you do not want to look through pages of irrelevant information.
 * International School Manila
 * Brent
 * GPA Average

//Step 3: Generate keywords related to your main concepts// In this case, it is not appropriate to find synonyms or words related to “ISM” and “Brent”, because they are both proper nouns. However, you can replace “GPA Average” with other systems of measuring academic performance, like the ones listed below.
 * SAT Scores
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">ACT Scores
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">IB Grade Average

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: normal;">The University of Colorado also suggests the use of a table to organize your keywords. This example is a rather simple one (because two out of the three main keywords are proper nouns and they do not require synonyms/related words), but if you were to have multiple main concepts with several synonyms, then it would be easier to organize them as shown below (University of Colorado):


 * = //Main Concept 1:// ISM ||= //Main Concept 2:// Brent ||= //Main Concept 3:// GPA Average ||
 * = - ||= - ||= SAT Score ||
 * = - ||= - ||= ACT Score ||
 * = - ||= - ||= IB Grade Average ||

From here, you can make use of other tools such as phrase searching or proximity searching to narrow down and specify your search results even further.

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"> 8 <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">SYNONYMS

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">**HOW CAN THEY HELP :** <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">using synonyms will enable you to //broaden your search results// while still searching specifically for your desired phrase or topic

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">**WHAT A SYNONYM IS :** "1.a word having the same or nearly the same meaning as another in the language, as joyful, elated, glad" (Ask.com). "2.a word or expression accepted as another name for something, as Arcadiafor pastoral simplicity; metonym" (Ask.com).

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">**HOW TO SEARCH / CHOOSE SYNONYMS :** Some databases or search engines have special features that directly enables your search to include its synonyms.

__//IN GOOGLE://__ Include **“~”** before the phrase that you want it to search synonyms of (Google).

- CAREFUL! YOUR RESULTS WILL VARY DEPENDING ON WHERE YOU PLACE THE “~”. You have to think carefully when using the synonym tool, because where you put the "~" sign affects your results. For example, if you type in "~global warming", then you get results including the word "global warming" and "earth". But if you type in "global ~warming", then you get results containing "climate change" as well.

__//IN EBSCO HOST://__ Depending on which databases you are using, there may be something called a //thesaurus expander available (//EBSCO)//.// If so, you can mark the "Also search for related words" expander when searching; this give you synonyms, alternate spellings and plurals for your search phrase / term (EBSCO).

__//OTHER DATABASES / SEARCH ENGINES://__ do not have specialized features for synonyms. You will have to use a thesaurus, or simply try and think up of some relevant synonyms of your key search phrase.


 * EXAMPLES (all done on Google) :**

1) Synonyms can also produce results for //__different formats of a number__.//

- If you type in "~World War 1" It will not only find results specifically w/ the number '1', but will also produce results in different formats, e.g, its roman numeral 'I' or the number spelled out, 'one'. (World War I, World War One)

2) Synonyms can be used to produce results that represent __//similar ideas, concepts, or things//__.

- If you type in “~apple computers”, you will get results with terms such as "Mac", "Macintosh" (Kimathi).

<span style="display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"> 8 <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">STOP WORDS


 * WHAT ARE STOP WORDS? :**

In order to save space and to essentially speed up searches, search engines exclude certain words unless they are quoted (Sullivan).This is the reason why it is important that you are aware of what databases and search engines consider as stop words; a stop word could be a word used in your search, and without even realizing it, may have already affected your search results.


 * EBSCO STOP WORDS:**

(EBSCO)
 * = a ||= been ||= is ||= was ||
 * = an ||= but ||= of ||= were ||
 * = are ||= by ||= on ||= whatever ||
 * = as ||= for ||= so ||= whether ||
 * = at ||= however ||= the ||= would ||
 * = be ||= if ||= there ||=  ||
 * = because ||= in ||= to ||=  ||

JSTOR STOP WORDS:


 * a, about, above, after, again, against, all, also, although, am, an, and, another, any, are, as, at, back, be, because, been, before, being, below, between, both, but, by, can, could, did, do, does, doing, down, during, each, either, even, ever, every, few, for, from, further, get, go, goes, had, has, have, having, he, her, here, hers, herself, him, himself, his, how, however, if, in, into, is, it, its, itself, just, least, less, like, made, make, many, may, me, might, more, most, must, my, myself, neither, never, no, nor, not, now, of, off, on, once, one, only, or, other, ought, our, ours, ourselves, out, over, own, put, said, same, say, says, see, seen, shall, she, should, since, so, some, still, such, take, than, that, the, their, theirs, them, themselves, then, there, therefore, these, they, this, those, three, through, to, too, two, under, until, up, us, very, was, way, we, well, were, what, when, where, whether, which, while, who, whom, why, will, with, would, you, your, yours, yourself, yourselves (JSTOR) ||

STOP WORDS FOR OTHER DATABASES & SEARCH ENGINES:

Here is the link to a hypothetical list of Stop Words that may or may not be used by search engines and databases (Link-Assistant). [|Click here.]

HOW TO GET AROUND STOP WORDS ON GOOGLE:

If you have a keyword that actually HAS a stop word in it, e.g "M and M" (the chocolate) you can then use a phrase search. So put M and M within quotes: "M and M" and it will then search for the whole phrase WITHOUT eliminating the 'and'.

More information on phrase searching can be found here.

Works Cited List
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Ask.com. "Synonym." Dictionary.com. 2010. Dictionary.com, LLC. 24 Sept. 2010. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/synonym>.

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Google. "Search Features." __Google__. 2010. Google. 24 Sept. 2010. <http://www.google.com/help/features.html>.

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">EBSCO. "Improving Search Results." __EBSCO Help__. EBSCO. 24 Sept. 2010. <[]>.

EBSCO. "Stop Words." __EBSCO Help__. EBSCO. 24 Sept. 2010. <[]>.

JSTOR. "Detailed Searching." __JSTOR.__ JSTOR. 22 Sept. 2010. <[]>. Kimathi, Mark. "How to Use Search Engine Synonyms to Your Advantage." __Ezine Articles__. 2010. EzineArticles.com. 24 Sept. 2010 <http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Use-Search-Engine-Synonyms-to-Your-Advantage&id=1268798>.

Link-Assistant. "Stop Words." __Link-Assistant.com.__ Link-Assistant.com. 22 Sept. 2010. Web. http://www.linkassistant.com/seo-stop-words.html

Sullivan, Danny. "What Are Stop Words?" __Search Engine Watch.__ 1 Jan. 2003. Incisive Interactive Marketing LLC. 22 Sept. 2010. Web. http://searchenginewatch.com/2156061

University of Colorado. "Choose Keywords for my Search." __UCB Libraries.__ 17 Sept. 2010. [].