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Pacific Lutheran University

Inquiry. Service. Leadership. Care.

Getting Started with Research

Whether this is your first time doing research, you need a quick refresher, or you want to improve your own research practices, this guide is design to assist you.

Using Keywords

Keywords are the words that you put into a search box when you are doing research. Unlike searches in Google, library databases require you to think in more concrete terms about what you want to search for. The video below shows how you can use your research question to develop keywords as well as some strategies for narrowing your search results.

 

 

Questions to Consider

Q: What terms or concepts are important to your topic?

Q: In addition to terms and concepts, are there names (for example, an author), places or locations (such as US or Central America), or periods (such as Baroque or 18th century)?