Xavier University Library: XU.TUTOR: Defining the Question: Searching by Keyword

4. Searching by keyword

Keyword searching uses natural language to look for the occurrence of a word or phrase in a database document, online catalog, or webpage.

The keywords in your search should be the concepts and similar terms identified from your research question.

Keywords

college freshmen: first year students, college students, freshmen students, new students

majors: college major, education curricula, course of study, academic degrees

Avoid using unnecessary words like what, effects, impact, the, of, that, on, to, etc.