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I don’t know what words to search

 

Follow these five steps to turn your research topic into a set of words you can put into OneSearch and get the best results 

1. Break your topic up into its main ideas or concepts
2. Brainstorm other ways to describe each concept (synonyms) 
3. Check for spelling mistakes or variations and add quotations around phrases
4. Think about what filters (or limiters) you want to use when you run your search
5. Put your terms from Steps 2-3 into OneSearch 

We recommend you write down your thoughts from these steps and keep it to refer back to as you search. 

1. Break your topic up into its main ideas or concepts

Example research topic: What motivates adult learners to take online courses?

Your main concepts would be: 

Concept #1Motivation  
Concept #2Adult Learners            
Concept #3Online Course


Tip: try not to include things like “reasons for,” “benefits,” “causes,” "effects". These are things you’ll learn as you read the research your find, but will not be helpful in your search. 

 

2. Brainstorm other ways to describe each concept (synonyms) 

Come up with a list of other words that mean roughly the same thing as each of your concepts (synonyms). This will help you build a list of words to include in your search when you're ready. 
When you have your list ready, write the word 'OR' between the synonyms you've listed for each category. 

Example: 

Concept #1motivation OR attitudes OR incentive OR interest 
Concept #2online OR distance OR web-based OR e-learning
Concept #3adult learners OR adult students OR mature students OR mature learners


Tip: if you’re stuck, try doing some background reading on your topic via Google to get ideas. Or, ask your friends, professor, or a librarian to help you.
 

 

3. Check for spelling mistakes or variations and add quotations around phrases

Spelling Mistakes: OneSearch will not automatically fix your spelling mistake like Google will.

Spelling Variations: Watch for words that are spelled differently (especially between Canadian and American English). Add any alternate spellings to your list from step 3. 

Example: labor OR labour, check OR cheque, color OR colour 

Quotation Marks: add “quotation marks” around any search term that is more than just one word. This makes sure that OneSearch searches those words together and in that order. 

Example:

Concept #1motivation OR attitudes OR incentive OR interest
Concept #2online OR distance OR web-based OR e-learning
Concept #3“adult learners” OR “adult students” OR “mature students” OR “mature learners” 

 

 

4. Think about what filters (or limiters) you want to use when you run your search

Examples: 

  • only peer-reviewed articles
  • only English language results
  • only results published in the last 10 years

Tip: these filters can be found on the left-hand side of your OneSearch Search Results screen when you're ready to try your search. 

Location of filters on the left-hand side of the One-Search Lite results screen

 

5. Put your terms from Steps 2-3 into OneSearch 

Keep the synonyms for each concept in their own box (you can use more or less than three concepts). 

Here is an example of a search when it is typed into OneSearch: