Before you begin searching, you'll need to identify keywords in your topic. The keywords you identify will be search terms that you'll manipulate in various ways to retrieve results. To identify key words, you must begin with a well-formed research question. Then you'll want to focus on the concepts at the heart of your question. Using these core concepts you'll generate several relevant keywords that will better focus your search results. The process is outlined below with an example.

Step 1: Write down your research question.
Step 2: Highlight core terms from your research question.
Step 3: Brainstorm a list of alternative terms or phrases for each core term.

Topic: What is the role of the griot in Western African cultures in preserving cultural history?

griot	Western Africa	preserving	cultural history
storyteller	Mande peoples	conserve	identity
historian	Fula peoples	defend	character
musician	Hausa peoples	save	allegiance
bard	Songhai peoples	store	body politic
troubadour	Toucouleur peoples	uphold	prehistory

If you're struggling to come up with alternative terms and phrases, you can:

Look at an encyclopedia article on your topic to find potential keywords
Use a dictionary or thesaurus to find related terms
Find a few initial articles, and look at the keywords or subject headings the database supplies to find additional keywords
Ask a librarian or your instructor for assistance

Optional: To help get you started you can also use the How to Generate Keywords guide from The University of Texas Libraries.