3. Searching for Information

Once you've done some initial background reading, it's time to search for more specific information about epilepsy. Remember your assignment requirements and consider what you've read thus far.

As you start to narrow this down into a topic/thesis, you'll want to continue to look for more sources. As you research, you might tweak or adjust your topic/thesis. In order to help you find more related sources about your topic, you'll want to identify keywords to help you search.

Keywords

As you think about what concepts you want to research, think about what particular words might be found in a good article about that topic. Think of related keywords:

epilepsy
"seizure disorders"

You can also combine your search terms to find more specific articles. Combine your keyword with any of the below:

diagnosis
causes
treatment
PTSD OR "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder"

To combine keywords, use Boolean Operators like AND or OR.

AND	OR
AND searches both terms together. Searching epilepsy AND diagnosis will get you results for sources that mention both epilepsy and diagnosis.	OR gives you more results. Searching PTSD OR "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder" will get you results for sources that mention either of those terms, because they mean the same thing.

Keywords work best by trial-and-error. Never do only one search. Some keywords will work better than others, and some keywords may lead you to different articles than you found in your first search. Search the databases with the keywords you selected to find relevant articles. And remember to ask a librarian if you need assistance coming up with keywords or looking for sources.