Keywords for Paper 1.
Below are some main concepts to consider searching when researching PAPER 1 on an energy or mineral resource of the West. Notice that there are a variety of different keywords that can be used to represent each concept.
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CONCEPT 1: Your particular mine, dam, wind farm, power plant, or other resource |
CONCEPT 2: Your industry |
CONCEPT 3: Exploitation, use, history, etc. |
CONCEPT 4: Stakeholders or effects on stakeholders |
CONCEPT 5: Policies and regulations |
CONCEPT 6: Opportunities or obstacles |
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KEYWORDS TO EXPERIMENT WITH: Let's say you were researching Kayenta Mine. If so, keywords might include: Kayenta Mine Peabody Energy Peabody Coal Peabody Western Coal Black Mesa
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KEYWORDS TO EXPERIMENT WITH:
wind energy wind power wind farms wind turbines wind park solar energy solar power solar farms solar parks mines mining extraction dams damming hydropower hydroelectric etc.
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KEYWORDS TO EXPERIMENT WITH: history timeline development use usage utilization exploitation function applications products OR production "end products" manufacture manufacturing etc. |
KEYWORDS TO EXPERIMENT WITH: politicians shareholders government consumers stakeholders landowners farmers Native Americans ranchers community impact environmental impact remediation disease incidence -- or cancer rates social impact disputes etc. |
KEYWORDS TO EXPERIMENT WITH: federal policy policies regulate regulation regulators policy recommendations planning future planning future policies laws legislation EPA or Environmental Protection Agency DOE or Department of Energy etc. |
KEYWORDS TO EXPERIMENT WITH: problems concerns complications hurdles obstacles disputes issues potential un-tapped new "new applications" future untried etc. |
Also, if you are looking for financial information for a particular power plant, then try Google searches on the name of your power plant along with the words "annual report."
Keywords for Paper 2.
Below are some main concepts to consider searching when researching PAPER 2 - your international energy portfolio report. Notice that there are a variety of different keywords that can be used to represent each concept.
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CONCEPT 1: Your country |
CONCEPT 2: General energy issues |
CONCEPT 3: Specific energy issues |
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KEYWORDS TO EXPERIMENT WITH: [Your chosen country]
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KEYWORDS TO EXPERIMENT WITH: energy energy resources natural resources solar energy wind energy nuclear energy etc.
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KEYWORDS TO EXPERIMENT WITH: history OR historical infrastructure population per capita electrification production emissions demand supply corruption per capita renewable poverty policy OR policies efficiency renewable sustainable OR sustainability reduction consumption planning etc. |
Understand why and how to use keywords.
1. Why search with keywords rather than sentences? And, why eliminate ALL non-essential keywords?
- Here's a sloppy, wordy, Google Scholar search: How has Kayenta Mine affected the Navajo?
- VS. a Google Scholar search using keywords only: Kayenta Mine Navajo
- Try the same searches in Proquest Agricultural and Environmental Database to see the comparison.
- Why are simple keyword searches more effective?
2. Why experiment with a variety of searches where you switch in different keywords for concepts?
- For example, what if instead of searching Kayenta Mine and Navajo, you switched in the company that owns Kayenta Mind, Peabody Coal -- so try: Peabody Coal Navajo. Do you get different results? Do they look relevant? Sometimes Peabody Coal is called Peabody Energy, what if you tried that? Do you get different results? Do they look relevant?
- Lets say you were researching a solar energy plant and wanted to get an overview of solar energy policy in the United States. Try it in EBSCO databases and compare the results with solar power policy United States. Or try regulation instead of policy. Do you get different results? Do they look relevant? What can you learn from that?
3. Why experiment with a variety of searches where you include different concepts and/or more or fewer concepts?
- A search on your particular power plant -- such as the solar power plant Solana Generating Station is going to lead to interesting results. But why would you ALSO do some searches where you exclude the name of your power station and instead search more generally on your INDUSTRY -- like the searches above on solar power policy United States?
- How does experimenting with different combinations of concepts -- or experimenting with more or fewer concepts help you find information?
4. If switching in different keywords (a.k.a. synonyms) for your concepts is helpful for finding new information, then how do you go about finding synonyms?
- Start with a search - any search. Before clicking on any of your results, glance over them to get keyword ideas. Expert searchers are constantly scanning their results and mining for new and/or better keywords before they click on a result; expert searchers practice what's called click restraint.