Starting Research Question: "How does media affect voting in young people?"
Starting Keywords: media; voting; young people
Brainstorm some of the different ways people can think about these concepts and keep track of all alternate keywords you can identify. Keep in mind, alternate keywords can be synonyms, broader, or more narrow terms, and
For example:
Media might generate a list like:
Voting might generate a list like:
And young people might generate a list like this:
Television is one type of media, and a talk show is one type of television program; the terms get more narrow. Civic engagement is a broader category under which voting might rest. And youth is just another way of saying young people. All of these are legitimate ways of coming up with alternate keywords. What works well in one database, might not work in another. You might want to use these terms in different combinations too!
You can use the worksheet below to explore keyword development for your own topic.