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Identifying Main Concepts

The main concepts are used to identify search terms.

For example:

    Topic:  How has the nature of United States presidential elections been affected by televised debates?

 Generate a list of search terms for each concept.

     Main Concepts and Search Terms

        United States

        •   United States

        Presidential elections

        •   presidents

        •   elections

        •   politics

        •   political campaigns

        Televised debates

        •   television

        •   debates

        •   campaign debates

Try using these terms as subject headings(descriptors) or keywords when searching for information.  Print sources use subject headings(descriptors).  Most databases use keywords, but some databases use both subject headings(descriptors) and keywords.

After you have chosen a topic and identified your search terms, you need to define your information needs by information type and information format.

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