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CDA 490

Finding Search Terms

Research Question: How does playing video games affect teenage girls?

 

Concept 1

AND

Concept 2

AND

Concept 3

Extract the major concepts from your research question.

teenage

 

girls

 

“video games”

List alternatives for each concept:

  • These can be synonyms, or they can be specific examples of the concept
  • Use single words or short phrases.
  • Find additional terms in abstracts and summaries of articles.

 

Search Terms

Search Terms

Search Terms

adolescent

female

“online games”

OR

OR

OR

teens

“teenage girls”

Nintendo

OR

OR

OR

 

 

 

OR

OR

OR

 

 

 

 

 

 

Places To Look

1. Multi-disciplinary databases: (Academic Search Complete helps you find search terms. Use these same search terms when searching other databases). Each of these databases contains different scholarly and non-scholarly sources. 

3. The General Library Search Tool

  • Use Advanced Search
  • Filter by Scholarly & last 5 years
  • Use other filters
    1. Journal Articles
    2. Subject Terms