Strategize Keywords & Subject Terms
Keywords are Search Terms that Capture Core Concepts of your Research
To find information on a topic requires us to use search terms that capture the ideas we are looking for.
Here are some strategies for developing useful keywords for your essays.
- Use simple keywords or keyword phrases rather than long phrases.
- Ex: "film analysis" instead of I want to find some criticism of this film
- Ex: "gender roles" OR sexism instead of the representation of sexism in this film
- Connect and focus your keywords with AND.
- Ex for a genre and theme: "film noir" AND gender
- Ex for a specific film and a director: "Get Out" AND "Jordan Peele"
- Look for synonyms and related ideas with OR
- Use truncation to pick up forms of a root word
- Ex: moral* = morals or morality
- Ex: moral* AND cinema
- Look for and use terminology and ideas you find in your research
- Be strategic. For example, look for ideas about your filmmakers work overall or about other works by the filmmaker. You may find useful insights for the evaluation of your film.
Subject Terms
Subject Terms are words library databases use to describe sources and to pull together everything on a subject. Look for and use relevant Subject Terms!
Here are just a few sample Subject Terms:
Film Criticism
Publishes articles by "film historican, theorists, and critics representing many different disciplines, cultures, and critical perspectives."
Where do I find Subjects?
In One Search, you can find Subject Terms two easy ways.
- Do a broad keyword search. On the left of the results list, it says Filter Results. Scroll down and look at Subjects.
- Do a keyword search. Click on the title of a source (book, video, article). Scroll down the page to Subjects.
- The image below shows the "record" for the book Horror to the Extreme: Changing Boundaries in Asian Cinema. Notice two useful subjects: Horror films -- Asia -- History and criticism and Horror films -- Asia
Click on Image to Enlarge
