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How to break down your question/statement

Learning Intention:  I can identify key concepts from my questions / statements

   I can come up with synonyms for key words.

Why?

Search tools are not mind readers. They use algorithms to guess what you want based on what you tell it. The more you give it to work from the easier it is to find your information.

Key Concepts:

What are the main ideas in my research question / statement?

Example:

If our thesis statement is "The main theme explored in To Kill a Mockingbird is racism." Then if we were to highlight our key concepts we would get: The main theme explored in To Kill a Mockingbird is racism.

Synonyms:

Are there any synonyms that also express these key concepts?

Example:

With the key concepts we found above we can use a thesaurus to help us find good synonyms. Remember not every synonym will express the same concept. Here's what we would get with ours. The best choices for the concepts in our statement are in green.

Key Concept

Synonym
Theme

argument

line

matter

motif

point

problem

question

stuff

subject

text

thought

topic

thesis

matter in hand

point at issue

To Kill a Mockingbird None it is the title
Racism

apartheid

bias

bigotry

discrimination

segregation

unfairness

illiberality

partiality

racialism

sectarianism

one-sideness