 Choosing keywords and brainstorming synonyms. Now that you have done some planning and come up with a good research question, you want to think of some words and phrases that describe the information you need. These words and phrases are called keywords, or search terms, and they are what you will use as you search for information. You can think of the stage of the research process as translation. You are taking your research question and translating it into a language that will make sense to the search tool you are using. For example, if you are using a research database to search for information, your search will be more effective if you are using language in a way that the database understands. This sounds complicated, but it basically just takes a few simple steps. The first thing you want to do is look at your research question and identify the main ideas it contains. Then you want to pick out keywords that express these main ideas. Electric car, purchase, and Canada are the main ideas you want to learn about for this question, so these are a good starting point. What you don't want to do is just type in your whole question word for word. This is not the most effective way to search using library databases, or even the most effective way to search Google. After you've thought of your keywords, think about each of those main ideas and try to come up with other words that mean the same thing or express the same idea. Make a list of these words as you think of them. Another good place to help you think of these synonyms is your background research. Some synonyms for electric car might be low emissions vehicle, green vehicles, and hybrid car. Some synonyms for purchase might be purchasing decisions, and consumer choice. For a question like this, you can also think of some of the reasons why someone might purchase an electric car. Use these as search terms as well. For example, improved mileage, convenience, and government incentives. The goal here is to think of as many different words and phrases to describe the main ideas in your topic as you can. This will ensure that you aren't missing out on good resources just because they use different words to describe your topic. While you're brainstorming keywords, it's also a good idea to think about specific aspects or areas of your topic that you could also use as keywords, and which can help you focus your search. For example, you might choose to do a very narrow search by using a lot of keywords. This will reduce the number of search results you get back. Or you could choose to do a very broad search by using a few keywords. This will increase the number of search results you find. To narrow your topic down, adding specific issues, specific geographic areas, or certain time periods can also make your search smaller. If you're not in your search, try using alternative viewpoints, looking at how a topic has changed over time, or investigating the implications of the topic. These can all make your search bigger.