Keywords

Once you have a clear idea of what your topic is, and have identified the main concepts, you can begin to identify the keywords and phrases that will become the search terms. When you list your keywords, you will need to consider:

synonyms (related terms)	Words or phrases that have a similar meaning	teenager, adolescent , youth
plurals	More than one	child, children
variant spellings	Variations in terminology and spelling are important to consider as most databases are international and often use American terms and spelling.	organisation, organization
acronyms, abbreviations	May need to be written out in full	UNESCO - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
broader terms	General terms	computer networks
narrower terms	Specific terms	Internet

Print the Search Planner (PDF format, 50KB) and use Part 1 to record the key concepts and keywords for your research.