Activity - search words


Identify the keywords in the following search questions by clicking on them:

  1. What equips some families to cope better with adolescents who have severe disabilities?
  2. What support groups are available for young carers of people with multiple sclerosis (MS)?
  3. Is cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) more effective than drug therapy for treating anxiety?
  4. How effective are community based interventions in reducing substance misuse in young people?

When identifying key words, there's never a wrong or right way to approach it, however, it's good practice to start simple and decide what are the 'important' words in a question.

For example, in the first question of this exercise, you might begin with a search for 'severe disabilities'. If you had too many results, you might search for "adolescents severe disabilities". This would refine or narrow the search and return more specific results.

To make the results even more specific you could search "families adolescents severe disabilities". At this stage, you will be much closer to finding the information you need.

Remember that you can also use equivalent words. Looking at the first question, for example, you might search 'family' rather than families, 'young people' rather than adolescents and 'disability' rather than disabilities.

Don't be afraid to try out search words and their equivalents.