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It is important to understand what an essay question or assignment brief is asking of you. Before you start to research or write, it is worth spending time considering the wording of the question and any learning outcomes that may accompany it. Each assignment will generally have at least three learning outcomes which you must cover if you are to achieve a pass.

Breaking down an assignment question

Before you attempt to answer an assignment question, you need to make sure you understand what it is asking. This includes not only the subject matter, but also the way in which you are required to write. Different questions may ask you to discuss, outline, evaluate… and many more. The task words are a key part of the question.

  • Key Words in Assignment Briefs

Meaning

Account Account asks you to give reasons for.  An account asks for a detailed description
Analyse

Make a detailed examination or investigation into something.

Assess Consider in a balanced way the points for and against something
Comment State clearly your opinions on the topic in question.  Support your views with evidence
Compare

Look for the similarities and differences. Show the relevance or consequences of these similarities.

Contrast

Emphasise the differences between two or more things.

Critically evaluate

Weigh arguments for and against something, assessing the strength of the evidence on both sides. Use criteria to guide your assessment of which opinions, theories, models or items are preferable.

Define Give the precise meaning of something.  Show how the distinctions you make are necessary

Describe

Give a detailed account
Discuss

Investigate or examine by argument; give reasons for and against.

Evaluate Make a judgement about the value/importance/worth of something.
Examine

Present in depth and investigate fully the implications.

Explain

Make plain, interpret, give reasons.

Extent 'To what extent’ – asks you to weigh the evidence for and against something: to state ‘how far’ something is valid.
Illustrate

Use examples, diagrams and so on to explain or make clear.

Interpret Make clear the meaning of something, usually giving your own views also
Justify Show adequate grounds for decisions or conclusions
Outline

Give the main features, structure or general principles of a topic omitting minor details.

Review Make a survey of; critically examine the subject.
State

Specify fully and clearly.

Summarise

Give a concise account of the main points of the topic.

Trace Follow the development or history of an event or process
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The Writing Center • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Understanding Assignments

What this handout is about.

The first step in any successful college writing venture is reading the assignment. While this sounds like a simple task, it can be a tough one. This handout will help you unravel your assignment and begin to craft an effective response. Much of the following advice will involve translating typical assignment terms and practices into meaningful clues to the type of writing your instructor expects. See our short video for more tips.

Basic beginnings

Regardless of the assignment, department, or instructor, adopting these two habits will serve you well :

  • Read the assignment carefully as soon as you receive it. Do not put this task off—reading the assignment at the beginning will save you time, stress, and problems later. An assignment can look pretty straightforward at first, particularly if the instructor has provided lots of information. That does not mean it will not take time and effort to complete; you may even have to learn a new skill to complete the assignment.
  • Ask the instructor about anything you do not understand. Do not hesitate to approach your instructor. Instructors would prefer to set you straight before you hand the paper in. That’s also when you will find their feedback most useful.

Assignment formats

Many assignments follow a basic format. Assignments often begin with an overview of the topic, include a central verb or verbs that describe the task, and offer some additional suggestions, questions, or prompts to get you started.

An Overview of Some Kind

The instructor might set the stage with some general discussion of the subject of the assignment, introduce the topic, or remind you of something pertinent that you have discussed in class. For example:

“Throughout history, gerbils have played a key role in politics,” or “In the last few weeks of class, we have focused on the evening wear of the housefly …”

The Task of the Assignment

Pay attention; this part tells you what to do when you write the paper. Look for the key verb or verbs in the sentence. Words like analyze, summarize, or compare direct you to think about your topic in a certain way. Also pay attention to words such as how, what, when, where, and why; these words guide your attention toward specific information. (See the section in this handout titled “Key Terms” for more information.)

“Analyze the effect that gerbils had on the Russian Revolution”, or “Suggest an interpretation of housefly undergarments that differs from Darwin’s.”

Additional Material to Think about

Here you will find some questions to use as springboards as you begin to think about the topic. Instructors usually include these questions as suggestions rather than requirements. Do not feel compelled to answer every question unless the instructor asks you to do so. Pay attention to the order of the questions. Sometimes they suggest the thinking process your instructor imagines you will need to follow to begin thinking about the topic.

“You may wish to consider the differing views held by Communist gerbils vs. Monarchist gerbils, or Can there be such a thing as ‘the housefly garment industry’ or is it just a home-based craft?”

These are the instructor’s comments about writing expectations:

“Be concise”, “Write effectively”, or “Argue furiously.”

Technical Details

These instructions usually indicate format rules or guidelines.

“Your paper must be typed in Palatino font on gray paper and must not exceed 600 pages. It is due on the anniversary of Mao Tse-tung’s death.”

The assignment’s parts may not appear in exactly this order, and each part may be very long or really short. Nonetheless, being aware of this standard pattern can help you understand what your instructor wants you to do.

Interpreting the assignment

Ask yourself a few basic questions as you read and jot down the answers on the assignment sheet:

Why did your instructor ask you to do this particular task?

Who is your audience.

  • What kind of evidence do you need to support your ideas?

What kind of writing style is acceptable?

  • What are the absolute rules of the paper?

Try to look at the question from the point of view of the instructor. Recognize that your instructor has a reason for giving you this assignment and for giving it to you at a particular point in the semester. In every assignment, the instructor has a challenge for you. This challenge could be anything from demonstrating an ability to think clearly to demonstrating an ability to use the library. See the assignment not as a vague suggestion of what to do but as an opportunity to show that you can handle the course material as directed. Paper assignments give you more than a topic to discuss—they ask you to do something with the topic. Keep reminding yourself of that. Be careful to avoid the other extreme as well: do not read more into the assignment than what is there.

Of course, your instructor has given you an assignment so that they will be able to assess your understanding of the course material and give you an appropriate grade. But there is more to it than that. Your instructor has tried to design a learning experience of some kind. Your instructor wants you to think about something in a particular way for a particular reason. If you read the course description at the beginning of your syllabus, review the assigned readings, and consider the assignment itself, you may begin to see the plan, purpose, or approach to the subject matter that your instructor has created for you. If you still aren’t sure of the assignment’s goals, try asking the instructor. For help with this, see our handout on getting feedback .

Given your instructor’s efforts, it helps to answer the question: What is my purpose in completing this assignment? Is it to gather research from a variety of outside sources and present a coherent picture? Is it to take material I have been learning in class and apply it to a new situation? Is it to prove a point one way or another? Key words from the assignment can help you figure this out. Look for key terms in the form of active verbs that tell you what to do.

Key Terms: Finding Those Active Verbs

Here are some common key words and definitions to help you think about assignment terms:

Information words Ask you to demonstrate what you know about the subject, such as who, what, when, where, how, and why.

  • define —give the subject’s meaning (according to someone or something). Sometimes you have to give more than one view on the subject’s meaning
  • describe —provide details about the subject by answering question words (such as who, what, when, where, how, and why); you might also give details related to the five senses (what you see, hear, feel, taste, and smell)
  • explain —give reasons why or examples of how something happened
  • illustrate —give descriptive examples of the subject and show how each is connected with the subject
  • summarize —briefly list the important ideas you learned about the subject
  • trace —outline how something has changed or developed from an earlier time to its current form
  • research —gather material from outside sources about the subject, often with the implication or requirement that you will analyze what you have found

Relation words Ask you to demonstrate how things are connected.

  • compare —show how two or more things are similar (and, sometimes, different)
  • contrast —show how two or more things are dissimilar
  • apply—use details that you’ve been given to demonstrate how an idea, theory, or concept works in a particular situation
  • cause —show how one event or series of events made something else happen
  • relate —show or describe the connections between things

Interpretation words Ask you to defend ideas of your own about the subject. Do not see these words as requesting opinion alone (unless the assignment specifically says so), but as requiring opinion that is supported by concrete evidence. Remember examples, principles, definitions, or concepts from class or research and use them in your interpretation.

  • assess —summarize your opinion of the subject and measure it against something
  • prove, justify —give reasons or examples to demonstrate how or why something is the truth
  • evaluate, respond —state your opinion of the subject as good, bad, or some combination of the two, with examples and reasons
  • support —give reasons or evidence for something you believe (be sure to state clearly what it is that you believe)
  • synthesize —put two or more things together that have not been put together in class or in your readings before; do not just summarize one and then the other and say that they are similar or different—you must provide a reason for putting them together that runs all the way through the paper
  • analyze —determine how individual parts create or relate to the whole, figure out how something works, what it might mean, or why it is important
  • argue —take a side and defend it with evidence against the other side

More Clues to Your Purpose As you read the assignment, think about what the teacher does in class:

  • What kinds of textbooks or coursepack did your instructor choose for the course—ones that provide background information, explain theories or perspectives, or argue a point of view?
  • In lecture, does your instructor ask your opinion, try to prove their point of view, or use keywords that show up again in the assignment?
  • What kinds of assignments are typical in this discipline? Social science classes often expect more research. Humanities classes thrive on interpretation and analysis.
  • How do the assignments, readings, and lectures work together in the course? Instructors spend time designing courses, sometimes even arguing with their peers about the most effective course materials. Figuring out the overall design to the course will help you understand what each assignment is meant to achieve.

Now, what about your reader? Most undergraduates think of their audience as the instructor. True, your instructor is a good person to keep in mind as you write. But for the purposes of a good paper, think of your audience as someone like your roommate: smart enough to understand a clear, logical argument, but not someone who already knows exactly what is going on in your particular paper. Remember, even if the instructor knows everything there is to know about your paper topic, they still have to read your paper and assess your understanding. In other words, teach the material to your reader.

Aiming a paper at your audience happens in two ways: you make decisions about the tone and the level of information you want to convey.

  • Tone means the “voice” of your paper. Should you be chatty, formal, or objective? Usually you will find some happy medium—you do not want to alienate your reader by sounding condescending or superior, but you do not want to, um, like, totally wig on the man, you know? Eschew ostentatious erudition: some students think the way to sound academic is to use big words. Be careful—you can sound ridiculous, especially if you use the wrong big words.
  • The level of information you use depends on who you think your audience is. If you imagine your audience as your instructor and they already know everything you have to say, you may find yourself leaving out key information that can cause your argument to be unconvincing and illogical. But you do not have to explain every single word or issue. If you are telling your roommate what happened on your favorite science fiction TV show last night, you do not say, “First a dark-haired white man of average height, wearing a suit and carrying a flashlight, walked into the room. Then a purple alien with fifteen arms and at least three eyes turned around. Then the man smiled slightly. In the background, you could hear a clock ticking. The room was fairly dark and had at least two windows that I saw.” You also do not say, “This guy found some aliens. The end.” Find some balance of useful details that support your main point.

You’ll find a much more detailed discussion of these concepts in our handout on audience .

The Grim Truth

With a few exceptions (including some lab and ethnography reports), you are probably being asked to make an argument. You must convince your audience. It is easy to forget this aim when you are researching and writing; as you become involved in your subject matter, you may become enmeshed in the details and focus on learning or simply telling the information you have found. You need to do more than just repeat what you have read. Your writing should have a point, and you should be able to say it in a sentence. Sometimes instructors call this sentence a “thesis” or a “claim.”

So, if your instructor tells you to write about some aspect of oral hygiene, you do not want to just list: “First, you brush your teeth with a soft brush and some peanut butter. Then, you floss with unwaxed, bologna-flavored string. Finally, gargle with bourbon.” Instead, you could say, “Of all the oral cleaning methods, sandblasting removes the most plaque. Therefore it should be recommended by the American Dental Association.” Or, “From an aesthetic perspective, moldy teeth can be quite charming. However, their joys are short-lived.”

Convincing the reader of your argument is the goal of academic writing. It doesn’t have to say “argument” anywhere in the assignment for you to need one. Look at the assignment and think about what kind of argument you could make about it instead of just seeing it as a checklist of information you have to present. For help with understanding the role of argument in academic writing, see our handout on argument .

What kind of evidence do you need?

There are many kinds of evidence, and what type of evidence will work for your assignment can depend on several factors–the discipline, the parameters of the assignment, and your instructor’s preference. Should you use statistics? Historical examples? Do you need to conduct your own experiment? Can you rely on personal experience? See our handout on evidence for suggestions on how to use evidence appropriately.

Make sure you are clear about this part of the assignment, because your use of evidence will be crucial in writing a successful paper. You are not just learning how to argue; you are learning how to argue with specific types of materials and ideas. Ask your instructor what counts as acceptable evidence. You can also ask a librarian for help. No matter what kind of evidence you use, be sure to cite it correctly—see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial .

You cannot always tell from the assignment just what sort of writing style your instructor expects. The instructor may be really laid back in class but still expect you to sound formal in writing. Or the instructor may be fairly formal in class and ask you to write a reflection paper where you need to use “I” and speak from your own experience.

Try to avoid false associations of a particular field with a style (“art historians like wacky creativity,” or “political scientists are boring and just give facts”) and look instead to the types of readings you have been given in class. No one expects you to write like Plato—just use the readings as a guide for what is standard or preferable to your instructor. When in doubt, ask your instructor about the level of formality they expect.

No matter what field you are writing for or what facts you are including, if you do not write so that your reader can understand your main idea, you have wasted your time. So make clarity your main goal. For specific help with style, see our handout on style .

Technical details about the assignment

The technical information you are given in an assignment always seems like the easy part. This section can actually give you lots of little hints about approaching the task. Find out if elements such as page length and citation format (see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial ) are negotiable. Some professors do not have strong preferences as long as you are consistent and fully answer the assignment. Some professors are very specific and will deduct big points for deviations.

Usually, the page length tells you something important: The instructor thinks the size of the paper is appropriate to the assignment’s parameters. In plain English, your instructor is telling you how many pages it should take for you to answer the question as fully as you are expected to. So if an assignment is two pages long, you cannot pad your paper with examples or reword your main idea several times. Hit your one point early, defend it with the clearest example, and finish quickly. If an assignment is ten pages long, you can be more complex in your main points and examples—and if you can only produce five pages for that assignment, you need to see someone for help—as soon as possible.

Tricks that don’t work

Your instructors are not fooled when you:

  • spend more time on the cover page than the essay —graphics, cool binders, and cute titles are no replacement for a well-written paper.
  • use huge fonts, wide margins, or extra spacing to pad the page length —these tricks are immediately obvious to the eye. Most instructors use the same word processor you do. They know what’s possible. Such tactics are especially damning when the instructor has a stack of 60 papers to grade and yours is the only one that low-flying airplane pilots could read.
  • use a paper from another class that covered “sort of similar” material . Again, the instructor has a particular task for you to fulfill in the assignment that usually relates to course material and lectures. Your other paper may not cover this material, and turning in the same paper for more than one course may constitute an Honor Code violation . Ask the instructor—it can’t hurt.
  • get all wacky and “creative” before you answer the question . Showing that you are able to think beyond the boundaries of a simple assignment can be good, but you must do what the assignment calls for first. Again, check with your instructor. A humorous tone can be refreshing for someone grading a stack of papers, but it will not get you a good grade if you have not fulfilled the task.

Critical reading of assignments leads to skills in other types of reading and writing. If you get good at figuring out what the real goals of assignments are, you are going to be better at understanding the goals of all of your classes and fields of study.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Research Process :: Step by Step

  • Introduction
  • Select Topic
  • Identify Keywords
  • Background Information
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  • Selecting Your Topic

Identifying Keywords

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Mind Mapping

Created by Joshua Vossler

keywords for assignment help

Make a list of keywords relevant to your topic.  Be sure to list similar, broader, narrower, and related terms . Keep the list by your side when you start your research and continue to add to it as you come across useful terms.

Before searching for information, you need to identify keywords related to your topic. The keywords you use have an impact on the results of your research. 

If the keywords you choose do not give you the results you need, try the others on your list or use the  search strategies  listed under Step 2.

Keywords and phrases can easily be found by scanning . . .

  • your initial research questions
  • encyclopedia and other articles used when conducting background research
  • bibliographies found at the end of books and articles

If you are still struggling, try these suggestions:

  • Use a thesaurus to identify synonyms
  • Find pictures related to your topic, then describe the picture
  • Brainstorm keywords with a librarian, your instructor, or a friend

Combining Keywords

When researching, we are like detectives trying to combine the right terms in the right place to find the information we need. This information will help you combine search terms to find relevant sources.

Broad Search

Search for information using the single most important term related to your topic. Use this type of search when looking for basic background information.

Specific Search

Search for information by combining key concepts using the words you have brainstormed. Each concept/word should be separated by the word "AND" . Use this kind of search when looking for specific evidence related to your claim or thesis.

Getting Too Many Irrelevant Results?

Add more search terms.

Getting Too Few Relevant Results?

Change or remove some search terms.

Using a Concept Map

A concept map is a graphical tool used to organize and structure knowledge. 

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Keyword Searching: Finding Articles on Your Topic: Select Keywords

Introduction to keywords.

Keywords, also commonly called search terms, are the words that you enter into the database search boxes. They represent the main concepts of your research topic and are the words used in everyday life to describe the topic. Without the right keywords, you may have difficulty finding the articles that you need.

Selecting keywords is a multi-step process that involves:

  • identifying the main concepts of your topic
  • brainstorming synonyms and antonyms that could also be used to describe your topic
  • spell out abbreviations

It is very rare that your first search will bring back perfect results. It takes trial and error to determine which keywords work best for your topic. Be prepared to run multiple searches in your quest for the keywords that will help you find the materials you need.

Turn your topic into keywords

When doing an internet search in Google or Bing, you can enter your complete research question in the search box and get a bunch of results. However, if you enter your entire research question in the Library databases, you probably won't get any results. This is because the library databases look for the exact words that you enter in the search box(es). If the database can't find all of the words that you entered in the search boxes in the information about an article, it won't bring back any results. That's why it's important to search only for the main parts of your topic.  

Here is an example of a research question:

What is the relationship between test performance and the retention of ESL students?

The keywords for this topic are listed below:

  • test performance
  • ESL students

Avoid abstract or implied concepts

Because the databases search for the exact words that you enter, certain types of words can be unhelpful to include in your search. These include:

relationship words : words that get at the relationship between two topics

examples: compare, contrast, correlation, causation, relationship  

judgment words : words that judge something to be better or worse than something else

examples: best, worst, pro, con, advantages, disadvantages

There are many ways these ideas can be expressed or even implied. Using these words in your searches may exclude relevant articles on your topic simply because they don't include the exact word that you entered. By leaving out these words, you allow the database to find all of the articles on your main topics, which you can then evaluate to see if they fit your needs.

Synonyms & antonyms

Synonyms are words that have the same or similar meaning. Antonyms are words that have the opposite meaning. Both can be helpful when trying to determine relevant keywords for your research topic.

Some topics have many different terms that can be used to describe them. For example, here are some additional keywords that could be used for test performance :

  • Tests     
  • Exams     
  • Test-Taking Skill
  • Test Anxiety     
  • Academic Achievement     
  • Test Preparation

Sometimes when you are researching a specific topic, it can also be helpful to search for the opposite of your topic. For example, if you are interested in student retention, you'll also want to look at student dropouts . Here are some possible synonyms and antonyms for student retention :

  • Student Persistence     
  • Graduation     
  • School Holding Power     
  • Student Attrition     
  • Dropout Prevention

Abbreviations

Abbreviations are shortened forms of words or phrases. For example, PTSD is an abbreviation for post-traumatic stress disorder. When searching the library databases, you'll always want to spell out abbreviations and search for the complete word or phrase. 

Searching for both the abbreviation and the complete word or phrase will help ensure you are finding all of the relevant results. You can do this by connecting the terms with OR.

Do not include parenthesis when searching for both the abbreviation and the full name.

Example: If you are looking for information on Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), you would search for: Cognitive Behavior Therapy OR CBT

Here are examples of abbreviations used in different fields of study:
Abbreviation Complete Phrase
ESL English as a Second Language
EFL English as a Foreign Language
SWOT Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats
OCD Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
ADHD Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
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Q. How can I pick the best keywords to use when researching my topic?

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Answered By: Priscilla Coulter Last Updated: Jun 06, 2023     Views: 127401

The words that you type into a search box are the key to finding the most relevant articles and books.  That's why they're called key words!

You'll need to choose keywords carefully. See the steps below (or if you prefer, here is a short video ).

1.  Write out a brief description (1 or 2 sentences) of your research topic.  It can be very helpful to phrase it in the form of a question that you'd like to answer. (See the research question example below.)

2.  Identify the most important 2 - 4 words from your research question. These are your key concepts .

  • To decide which words are most important, imagine that you need to explain your topic to someone using no more than 4 words. Words like "does," "the," "in," or "of" (while useful in a sentence) won't be specific enough, so you wouldn't use those.

3.  For each key concept, make a list of other words with the same or related meanings.  These will be your keywords!

  • Use a thesaurus to find synonyms.
  • Think of specific examples or types. 
  • If your topic is something you don't know enough about yet, it can be hard to think of synonyms or examples. Find some background information  on your topic to help jump-start your brainstorming!

: " "
  and


learners
college students
undergraduates
 


online course
distance education
remote learning


social media
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram


learning
success
performance
grades

1.  Go to the library's homepage and find the Everything search box .

2.  Choose one keyword from each concept list.  Type those keywords into the search box. Type AND between each one (learn about Boolean operators : AND, OR, NOT ).

Examples (from our list above) :

  • students AND online classes AND social networking AND learning
  • college students AND online courses AND social media AND performance
  • learners AND online courses AND Facebook AND grades  

3.  Click search and explore the results.  Try several of your keyword combinations, and keep a list of the keywords that fetch the most relevant articles .

  • If you get too many results, try to narrow your search by adding more keywords .
  • If you get too few results, try to broaden your search by using fewer keywords .

4.   Look closely at the most relevant articles in your search results. You may see new author-supplied keywords or database subject headings that describe your topic. Add those terms to your list .

5.  Create new keyword combinations from your refined list of terms, and test them again ! 

  •  undergraduates AND online courses AND social networking
  •  student engagement AND higher education AND social networking
  • learning communities AND online courses AND social networking

6.   As you try out new keyword combinations, it can be very helpful to save the most relevant articles as you go along.

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Tips for Developing a Topic

Visit an online Mind Mapping tool like in Credo Reference which is designed to help you generate ideas and focus your topic, as well as help you generate keywords!

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If you are someone who struggles to grasp the concepts being taught in class, assignments can serve as a way to reinforce those concepts and help them understand better.

One Place For All Subject's Assignment Help

Learn & understand any subject, with the help of our experts 24x7. TutorChamps is making learning easy for you to get top grades and timely work completion.

Physics Assignment Help

Chemistry assignment help, math assignment help, statistics assignment help, accounting assignment help, economics assignment help, programming assignment help, engineering assignment help, science assignment help, biology assignment help, nursing assignment help, management assignment help, finance assignment help, choose assignment help in your own way.

We provide assignment help in two customized ways so that you can avail of this service in your own way.

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Whether you have a deadline or a doubt in the middle of the night, TutoChamps is here to help you.

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Our students have been pleased with our assignment help and have willingly shared their testimonials and experiences.

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I was skeptical about using assignment help services, but TutorChamps exceeded my expectations. Their tutors were patient and thorough, helping me understand complex concepts. I'm grateful for their support!

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Looking For Help With Something Else In Your Academics?

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Here, we have answered the most frequently asked questions from our students. If you have any further inquiries, please don't hesitate to reach out to us.

FAQs

What is assignment help?

Assignment help is a service that provides academic support to students in completing their assignments. It connects students with subject matter experts who offer guidance, explanations, and solutions to their academic tasks.

How does assignment help work?

Assignment help services typically operate through online platforms. Students can submit their assignment requirements, and expert tutors or writers provide personalized solutions and assistance to meet those requirements.

Is assignment help legal?

Yes, assignment help is legal. It is a form of academic support and guidance that helps students improve their understanding of subjects and excel in their studies.

Can I trust assignment help services?

Yes, you can trust reputable assignment help services. Look for services like TutorChamps with positive customer reviews, transparent pricing, and a track record of delivering high-quality work.

Are the assignments plagiarism-free?

Reputable assignment help services guarantee plagiarism-free content. They provide original and well-researched assignments to maintain academic integrity.

What subjects do assignment help services cover?

TutorChamps’s assignment help services cover a wide range of subjects such as maths, science, literature, programming, economics, and many more.

Can I get help with urgent assignments?

Yes, many assignment help services offer assistance with urgent assignments, ensuring timely delivery to meet tight deadlines.

Can I request revisions for my assignment?

Reputable assignment help services like TutorChamps often provide free revisions to ensure students' satisfaction with the delivered work.

Will my personal information be kept confidential?

Trusted assignment help services like TutorChamps prioritize the confidentiality and security of students' personal information and ensure it is not shared with third parties.

Do assignment help services offer refunds?

Many assignment help services like TutorChamps have refund policies in place to address situations where students are not satisfied with the provided assistance.

Online Assignment Help: Your Path to Academic Excellence

In today's fast-paced and competitive academic environment, students often face the challenge of managing multiple assignments and meeting tight deadlines. As the workload increases, it's not uncommon for students to seek external support to ensure their academic success. This is where online assignment help comes into play. With the rise of digital platforms, students now have access to professional assistance from subject matter experts, enabling them to excel in their studies and achieve their academic goals.

What is Online Assignment Help?

Online assignment help is a service offered by educational platforms and websites that connects students with experienced tutors or writers. These experts provide guidance, support, and even custom-written assignments tailored to meet the specific requirements of students' coursework. Whether it's an essay, research paper, programming task, or any other academic project, online assignment help offers personalized assistance to address students' individual needs.

Advantages of Seeking Online Assignment Help

Expert Guidance: Online assignment help connects students with subject matter experts who possess in-depth knowledge in their respective fields. This expert guidance allows students to gain a comprehensive understanding of complex topics and concepts.

Customized Solutions: Each assignment is unique, and online help services offer customized solutions that cater to the specific requirements of the task. This ensures that students receive well-structured and tailored assignments that align with their professors' expectations.

Timely Delivery: Meeting deadlines is crucial in academics. Online assignment help ensures timely delivery of assignments, allowing students to submit their work promptly and avoid academic penalties.

Plagiarism-Free Content: Plagiarism is a serious academic offense. Online assignment help services provide original and plagiarism-free content, giving students the assurance of submitting authentic work.

Improvement in Grades: With expert assistance and well-crafted assignments, students can improve their grades and academic performance significantly.

Reduced Academic Stress: By delegating some of their academic workloads to experts, students can reduce stress and focus on other essential aspects of their studies and personal life.

Access to a Wide Range of Subjects: Online assignment help covers a diverse range of subjects and disciplines, ensuring that students from various academic backgrounds can benefit from the service.

24/7 Availability: Online assignment help platforms are available round-the-clock, allowing students to seek assistance whenever they need it, regardless of time zones or geographic location.

How to Choose the Best Online Assignment Help Service?

With numerous online assignment help services available, choosing the right one can be overwhelming. Here are some factors to consider when selecting the best service:

Expertise of Tutors/Writers: Look for platforms that have a team of qualified and experienced tutors or writers in various subjects.

Customer Reviews: Read reviews and testimonials from other students to gauge the quality of service and customer satisfaction.

Affordability: Consider the pricing and affordability of the service, ensuring it fits within your budget.

Confidentiality and Security: Ensure that the platform prioritizes the confidentiality and security of your personal information.

Timely Delivery: Look for a service that emphasizes timely delivery of assignments, especially when you have tight deadlines.

Online assignment help has become a valuable resource for students seeking academic support and excellence. With expert guidance, customized solutions, and timely assistance, students can overcome academic challenges and achieve their academic goals effectively. When choosing an online assignment help service, consider factors like expertise, customer reviews, affordability, and confidentiality. Embrace online assignment help as your pathway to academic success and a less stressful educational journey.

What Topics Do TutorChamps Cover In Assignment Help?

TutorChamps covers a wide range of topics in their assignment help services, ensuring comprehensive support for students from various academic disciplines. Some of the key topics covered by TutorChamps in assignment help include:

Essay Writing: TutorChamps provides assistance in essay writing across different subjects and essay types, ensuring students can effectively express their ideas and arguments.

Research Papers: Students can receive guidance in conducting research, structuring research papers, and citing sources properly.

Programming and Coding: TutorChamps offers support in various programming languages and coding tasks, helping students tackle programming assignments and projects.

Mathematics and Statistics: From basic math concepts to complex statistical analysis, TutorChamps helps students navigate through mathematical problems and data interpretation.

Science and Engineering: TutorChamps covers a broad spectrum of scientific subjects, including physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering topics.

Business and Management: Students studying business and management can receive assistance in business plans, case studies, and marketing strategies.

Literature and Language Arts: TutorChamps aids students in understanding literary works, analyzing texts, and enhancing their language arts skills.

History and Social Sciences: Students can seek help in history research, social sciences essays, and understanding historical events and contexts.

Computer Science and IT: TutorChamps provides support in computer science concepts, IT projects, and software development tasks.

Economics and Finance: Students studying economics and finance can receive assistance in economic theories, financial analysis, and quantitative methods.

Psychology and Sociology: TutorChamps covers topics in psychology and sociology, including research studies and analyzing human behavior.

Art and Design: Students in art and design fields can seek guidance in artistic techniques, art history, and design projects.

These are just a few examples of the extensive range of topics that TutorChamps covers in their assignment help services. With their team of qualified tutors and writers, TutorChamps ensures that students from diverse academic backgrounds receive the necessary support to excel in their assignments and achieve academic success.

Which Students Can Benefit From Online Assignment Help?

Students from various academic backgrounds can benefit from online assignment help. Here are the groups of students who can find value in seeking assistance through online assignment help:

Busy College Students: College life can be hectic with multiple assignments, exams, and extracurricular activities. Online assignment help provides valuable support to students managing a busy schedule, helping them meet their academic requirements effectively.

International Students: International students may face language barriers or differences in educational systems. Online assignment help offers personalized assistance, making it easier for them to adapt and excel in their coursework.

Struggling Learners: Some students may find certain subjects or topics challenging. Online assignment help provides a way for struggling learners to receive expert guidance and improve their understanding of difficult concepts.

Working Professionals: Balancing work and studies can be demanding for working professionals pursuing higher education. Online assignment help allows them to manage their time efficiently and perform well in their courses.

Non-Native English Speakers: Non-native English speakers may need additional support to communicate effectively in their assignments. Online assignment help offers language and writing assistance to improve the quality of their work.

Students with Learning Disabilities: Students with learning disabilities may require customized support in their assignments. Online assignment help can provide tailored solutions that cater to their specific needs.

Students Seeking Higher Grades: Students aiming to achieve higher grades can benefit from the expert guidance and well-crafted assignments provided by online assignment help services.

Those Seeking Career Advancement: Working professionals or graduate students looking to advance their careers can use online assignment help to excel in their academic pursuits and gain a competitive edge.

Individuals with Time Constraints: Students facing time constraints due to personal commitments, part-time jobs, or other responsibilities can benefit from online assignment help to manage their academic workload effectively.

Students Seeking Comprehensive Understanding: Online assignment help offers expert explanations and insights, enabling students to gain a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of various subjects.

Last-Minute Assistance: Students facing tight deadlines or last-minute assignments can rely on online assignment help for timely support and timely submissions.

Anyone Seeking Academic Support: Ultimately, anyone seeking academic support, guidance, and improvement in their performance can find value in utilizing online assignment help services.

In conclusion, online assignment help caters to a diverse range of students, from those managing busy schedules to international students adapting to new educational systems. It provides personalized support, enhances understanding, and helps students achieve their academic goals effectively. Regardless of the challenges students may face, online assignment help serves as a valuable resource to foster academic success and excellence.

Why is Taking Assignment Help Important for Students?

Taking assignment help is essential for students for several compelling reasons that can significantly impact their academic journey and overall learning experience. Here's why seeking assignment help is important for students:

  • Expert Guidance and Subject Knowledge:

Assignment help connects students with subject matter experts who possess in-depth knowledge and expertise in their respective fields. This expert guidance ensures that students receive accurate and comprehensive information, helping them understand complex topics more effectively.

  • Customized and Well-Structured Solutions:

Each assignment has unique requirements and assignment help services offer customized solutions that meet the specific criteria of the task. These well-structured assignments align with professors' expectations, leading to higher grades and academic recognition.

  • Timely Submission and Meeting Deadlines:

Meeting assignment deadlines are crucial in academics. Assignment help ensures timely submission of tasks, enabling students to avoid academic penalties and maintain their academic standing.

  • Improvement in Academic Performance:

With expert assistance and well-crafted assignments, students can improve their academic performance. Assignment help supports their learning journey, boosts their understanding of subjects, and enhances their overall grades.

  • Reduced Academic Stress:

Academic workload and the pressure of meeting expectations can lead to stress and burnout. Taking assignment help reduces academic stress, allowing students to focus on their studies and personal well-being.

  • Access to a Wide Range of Subjects:

Assignment help services cover a diverse range of subjects and disciplines. Students from various academic backgrounds can benefit from support tailored to their specific areas of study.

  • Language and Writing Assistance:

For non-native English speakers or students with language barriers, assignment help provides language and writing assistance to improve the clarity and coherence of their work.

  • Original and Plagiarism-Free Content:

Plagiarism is a serious academic offense. Assignment help services offer original and plagiarism-free content, ensuring the authenticity and integrity of students' work.

  • Preparation for Exams and Assessments:

Assignments often contribute to exam preparations and assessments. By seeking assignment help, students can reinforce their knowledge and better prepare for exams.

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Assignment help services are flexible and convenient, accommodating students' schedules and time zones. This accessibility allows students to seek assistance whenever they need it.

  • Building Academic Confidence:

As students receive support and witness improvements in their assignments, they gain academic confidence and a positive attitude toward learning.

  • Lifelong Learning and Skill Development:

Assignment help fosters a culture of lifelong learning. Students can develop critical thinking, research, and writing skills through the support and guidance they receive.

In conclusion, taking assignment help is crucial for students as it provides expert guidance, customized solutions, timely submissions, and improved academic performance. With reduced stress, language assistance, and access to a wide range of subjects, students can focus on their learning journey and build essential skills for lifelong success. Embrace assignment help as a valuable tool to excel academically and foster a positive and enriching learning experience.

How TutorChamps Fulfils the Requirements of Students in Their Assignments?

TutorChamps fulfills the requirements of students in their assignments through a comprehensive and student-centric approach. Here's how TutorChamps meets the needs of students effectively:

  • Customized and Tailored Solutions:

TutorChamps understands that each assignment is unique, and one-size-fits-all solutions don't work. They provide customized and tailored solutions that align with the specific requirements of each assignment. This ensures that students receive well-structured and personalized assignments, meeting the expectations of their professors.

  • Subject Matter Experts:

TutorChamps boasts a team of subject matter experts who are highly knowledgeable and experienced in their respective fields. These experts are skilled in various subjects and disciplines, providing students with accurate and reliable information in their assignments.

  • Timely Delivery:

Meeting deadlines is crucial in academics, and TutorChamps recognizes the importance of timely delivery. They prioritize prompt submissions, ensuring that students can submit their assignments on time without facing academic penalties.

  • Plagiarism-Free Content:

Originality and authenticity are paramount in academic assignments. TutorChamps guarantees plagiarism-free content, providing students with unique and well-researched work that showcases their individual understanding of the subject matter.

  • Clear Explanations and Understanding:

TutorChamps focuses on not only providing solutions but also ensuring that students understand the concepts thoroughly. Their tutors offer clear explanations, simplifying complex topics, and encouraging questions to foster a deeper understanding.

  • 24/7 Availability and Support:

TutorChamps is available round-the-clock, offering 24/7 support to students regardless of their time zones or geographic locations. This accessibility ensures that students can seek assistance whenever they need it, especially for urgent assignments or last-minute queries.

  • Comprehensive Coverage of Subjects:

TutorChamps covers a wide range of subjects and disciplines, catering to students from diverse academic backgrounds. From mathematics and science to literature and programming, TutorChamps provides support in various fields.

  • Building Students' Skills and Confidence:

TutorChamps not only helps students with their assignments but also focuses on building their skills and confidence. Through expert guidance and constructive feedback, students can improve their research, writing, and problem-solving abilities.

  • Affordability and Transparent Pricing:

TutorChamps offers affordable pricing options, making their services accessible to students with varying budgets. They maintain transparent pricing, ensuring that students know the cost upfront without any hidden fees.

  • Emphasis on Academic Integrity:

TutorChamps upholds academic integrity and ethical standards. They encourage students to use the provided assistance as a learning tool while maintaining their academic honesty.

In conclusion, TutorChamps fulfills the requirements of students in their assignments through a combination of customized solutions, subject matter expertise, timely delivery, and plagiarism-free content. With a focus on clear explanations, 24/7 support, and comprehensive subject coverage, TutorChamps helps students develop essential skills and confidence in their academic pursuits. Embrace TutorChamps as your trusted ally in achieving academic excellence and ensuring a positive and enriching learning experience.

Is Assignment Help Available At TutorChamps For Last Submissions?

Yes, assignment help is available at TutorChamps for the last submissions. TutorChamps understands that students may sometimes face tight deadlines or last-minute assignments, and they are well-prepared to provide timely support in such situations.

When students have urgent assignments that need to be submitted quickly, TutorChamps' team of experienced tutors is ready to assist. They prioritize prompt responses and timely delivery to ensure that students can meet their submission deadlines without compromising on the quality of their work.

Whether you have a challenging task that requires immediate attention or need help with a last-minute project, TutorChamps is committed to offering reliable and efficient assistance. Students can rely on TutorChamps' expertise and 24/7 availability to address their urgent assignment needs effectively.

Don't hesitate to seek assignment help from TutorChamps, even for last-minute submissions. With their support, you can tackle time-sensitive tasks with confidence and submit your assignments on time, while still ensuring the academic integrity and excellence of your work.

Can Someone Do My Assignment For Me? Yes, TutorChamps Here!

Yes, TutorChamps is here to help you with your assignments! If you find yourself overwhelmed with academic tasks or facing challenging assignments, you don't have to worry anymore. Our team of experienced tutors and writers is ready to provide personalized assistance and expert guidance to ensure you excel in your studies.

At TutorChamps, we understand the importance of submitting high-quality and well-structured assignments to achieve academic success. Our dedicated team is committed to delivering customized solutions that meet the specific requirements of your assignments.

We don't just do your assignments for you; we guide you through the process, helping you understand the concepts and improve your academic skills. Our tutors provide clear explanations and support you in every step of the way, empowering you to become a confident and independent learner.

Whether it's an essay, research paper, programming task, or any other academic project, TutorChamps is your reliable partner in academic excellence. We take pride in helping students like you achieve their academic goals and reduce the stress of overwhelming coursework.

So, if you ever find yourself asking, "Can someone do my assignment for me?" remember that TutorChamps is here to answer with a resounding "Yes!" Contact us today, and let's embark on a journey of learning and academic achievement together!

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University of Houston Libraries

What are keywords and why are they important.

Brought to you by the University of Houston Libraries.

You have a research assignment and need to use the library's databases to find different information sources.

When searching for sources in library databases, you will need to use specific search terms known as “keywords.” Picking the right keywords is an important part of the research process and can affect your search results.

Keywords should represent the main concepts in the topic you’re exploring. Generally speaking, they are single words or short phrases that can be combined in various forms to generate different search results. Even if you’ve never done academic research before, you probably already have experience developing keywords.

For example, maybe you searched online for the showtimes for a new movie you wanted to see. You probably used the title of the film and the word “showtimes” as your keywords to bring up the results you needed.

Keywords in academic research are similar. For example, let’s say your research question is “how does cyberbullying affect teenagers’ mental health?”

First, you’ll want to think about what the main concepts are. In this case, that would be cyberbullying , teenagers , and mental health .

Next, consider what words or short phrases will help you find information for each main concept. Remember that there is usually more than one way to say the same thing, so try to think of relevant synonyms as well.

For example, for teenagers , you would probably want to list adolescents and students , but you might also consider using high school as a related term for students .

Once you have a starting list of keywords, try searching in different databases to see if you’re on the right track and can get relevant results.

Pay attention to the language used in the sources you find. You may see other words you can use that you hadn’t thought of yet that you can use as additional keywords.

As you keep searching for sources and trying new keywords, contact UH Libraries if you need further help.

  • What are Keywords and Why are they Important transcript
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Keyword research for SEO: the ultimate guide

keywords for assignment help

Keyword research is an essential part of your SEO strategy. It’s the first step in the SEO copywriting process. Before you create your site’s content, you should find out what search terms your audience uses. Their search terms are your keywords. Based on these keywords, you can start writing useful, high-quality, and findable content. In this post, we’ll take you through the steps involved in keyword research.

Table of contents

What is keyword research, originality versus findability, a video on keyword research, focus keyword, long-tail keywords, keyword strategy, search intent, how to do keyword research in 10 steps, quick keyword research, prioritize your keyword list, a focus keyphrase and its synonyms only need one page, add related keyphrases to help google understand your text, check out results for singular and plural keywords, use a keyphrase only once, ready start writing.

Are you looking for a guide to keyword research for ecommerce? You can find more information tailored to your needs in this post about keyword research for online stores .

Keyword research is part of SEO (search engine optimization). It’s the work someone does to come up with an extensive list of keywords they would like a website to rank for. To obtain such a list, website owners need to dig into their desired audience and search engines. What search terms do people type into Google when looking for a particular product, service, business or type of organization? And what do they expect to find? With this list, website owners can create content that will attract more high-quality traffic to their site. Keyword research is never finished: repeating it regularly is essential to staying up-to-date!

Read more: What is keyword research? »

Why is keyword research important?

Proper keyword research is important because it makes clear what search terms your audience uses. At Yoast, we frequently come across business owners who use one set of words to describe their products, while their target audience uses a completely different set of words! As a result, potential customers can’t find those websites. In other words: there’s a mismatch.

To avoid this mismatch, you should do thorough keyword research. This research will make sure that you use the same words as your target audience. In addition, you should also consider your audience’s search intent . This will help you figure out what exactly your audience is looking for. All that’s left is for you to write high-quality content that answers your audience’s questions!

What about originality? Isn’t it better to stand out from the crowd and use different keywords than your competitors? Let’s say you (or your marketing department) decides to give a product an uncommon name. This can be a smart marketing decision, because people could remember your product more easily. If you rent out vacation cottages instead of vacation homes, for example, you might stand out more.

But beware: very few people search for [vacation cottages]. So if you optimize your text for cottages , you’ll probably rank well on that specific term. However, because your audience uses a different word, you won’t generate a lot of traffic, and you won’t reach a large part of your potential customers.

In this video, Michiel tells us more about keyword research and how we think it should be done. It’s part of our SEO for beginner’s course , available through our Yoast SEO Academy subscription :

Essential concepts of keyword research

Before we jump to doing keyword research , we’ll briefly explain some of its essential concepts.

A focus keyword or keyphrase is the word or phrase you want a certain page on your site to be found for in Google. You determine your set of focus keyphrases by doing keyword research.

Long-tail keywords are more specific and less commonly searched for than head keywords. They focus on a niche. The longer and more specific search terms are, the easier it will be to rank for them. Why? Because there will be less competition.

However, long-tail keywords are still worth ranking for! Because even though less people are searching for them, they might be more motivated to buy, subscribe, sign up, etc.

Long tail graphic

Your keyword strategy is about the decisions you make based on your keyword research. For instance, what content are you going to create first? Will you focus on the head or tail? How and where will you publish it? Will you create a piece of writing, a post or a product page, a video tutorial or an infographic?

Digging into search intent is key here: you have to discover what a searcher actually wants or needs. You’re not just looking at keywords. You’re also looking at the underlying goals of what a searcher wants to know, do or buy. Your content should provide a solution to the searcher’s “problem”. This is also known as content design .

There are 10 crucial steps to follow when carrying out keyword research. We’ll guide you through the process, and give you practical tips so you can conduct your own keyword research:

Before you start, think about your mission . Reflect on questions such as: What is the main goal of your business or organization? What makes it special? Who exactly are you trying to reach? And, what promises do you make on your website? Take your time and literally write down your mission. Once you’re able to answer these questions in detail, you’ll have taken the first and most important step in developing your keyword strategy. What if you’re in a competitive market? The market you’re in determines whether you’ll be able to rank high with your chosen keywords. Some markets are highly competitive, with large companies dominating the search results. It’ll be hard to compete with these companies, because they have huge budgets for marketing in general and SEO in particular. If you’re launching into a competitive market, your best bet is to start out small. Once you ‘own’ a small part of that niche and become a bigger name in your business area, you could try to level up and sell your cruises to a larger (more general) audience. Your mission will then become more general as well. The scope of your business mission should align with your SEO goals, too. Be realistic about what kind of rankings you can achieve with the size of your business, and focus on what will help you achieve your mission. An example Let’s say you sell cruises to Hawaii. You offer great facilities for children, which makes your cruises especially suitable for parents with younger kids. If there are no other family-friendly cruises to Hawaii, you will stand out from the crowd. It will make your service unique. So it would be smart to make this your mission, your niche – because this is what you have to offer your audience.

An example of how your keyword research sheet might look in Excel

Based on the data you’ve collected now, you can determine a keyword strategy . If you’ve followed the steps above, you should have a spreadsheet with a substantial amount of keyphrases, plus information about the competition and the search intent of your audience for those keyphrases. Now think about this question: How does my website hold up compared to the websites in the SERPs? Are you of equal size and marketing budget? Then go ahead and focus on those head terms. If not: try more long-tail keywords first. Focusing on a whole bunch of long-tail keywords combined could very well attract a lot of traffic. Once you’ve managed to rank for those long-tail keywords, aiming for more head terms will become easier. When you’ve decided where to jump in, think about the type of content: What was the search intent for my keyphrases? What is my audience looking for? But also, which content can I create that isn’t there yet, and how can I stand out in terms of quality or providing solutions? This will help you decide on the type of content you’re going to create .

In theory, this step is out of the scope of keyword research itself. Nevertheless, creating awesome landing pages is essential if you want to get traffic to your website. So, you’ll need to build optimized landing pages for your search terms. You don’t have to create all these pages immediately – it can be a long-term effort. Your keyword strategy will help you prioritize. Cornerstone content For your most important keyphrases you’ll create cornerstone content articles ; articles that provide the best possible content about that keyword – authoritative and all-encompassing. All your supporting long-tail articles should link to your cornerstone content pages. This is part of your internal linking strategy , which Yoast SEO Premium can help you implement . You can also use our SEO workout: the Cornerstone content approach to build a strong internal linking strategy in a few easy steps.

Once you’ve done a thorough analysis of your chances to rank on each specific term, published some amazing articles (and optimized them accordingly), you should wait a little. Check out your rankings. Does your article pop up? Did it hit the first page of Google’s SERPs? Or is it hidden away on page 2 or 3? Make sure to evaluate your results in the SERPs. There are various ways to check how your content is performing in the search results. The simplest way is to Google the terms you’ve optimized your articles for. Another option is to use Google Search Console to find out which queries you’re ranking for . While the Google Search Console method is a bit more complicated, it can be a great way to find new opportunities! And finally, a third method is to use a keyword tracking tool to monitor your rankings ; you can do this easily using the integrated Wincher features in the Yoast SEO plugin. However you do it, it’s always a good idea to check if your efforts are paying off. If you’re not able to rank on the first page, try to write another article, focused on an (even) more long-tail keyword. Make it a little bit more specific, more niche. And see how that goes. Evaluate again. Continue this process until you hit that first page of the SERPs!

As time goes on, things will change. Your audience may start using different words to search for what they want, so you might need to add new keywords to your sheet. And with the rise of generative AI , the competitive landscape is bound to change, either making it easier or harder to target particular keywords. Who knows? Blogging might not be relevant anymore. When you look at the situation from year to year, a lot can change. That’s why it’s important to reevaluate and refresh your keyword research once in a while. Take the time to update your sheet with the latest information. And don’t forget to keep your content fresh and up-to-date , too!

In an ideal world, you would do your keyword research, make a beautiful spreadsheet and create landing pages for each one. Your site structure would be flawless, and you’d blog and write every day, making your site rank higher and higher in Google. But we live in the real world.

Of course, your keyword research will not always be as extensive. And some posts or articles aren’t written as part of an awesome strategy, but just because the topic was in the news or something inspired you to write it . That’s just how these things work. But this doesn’t have to be a problem.

If you’re writing something that doesn’t exactly fit your strategy, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to make that content rank. You could still use it to rank for something related to the terms in the list of your keyword strategy. Use the tools mentioned in step 3 and Google Trends to quickly check which keyword you’d like to rank for. At least, take some time to think about how to make your article or blog fit your strategy. After all, if you are writing valuable content, you might as well make it rank! You can find more tips on how to do keyword research on the fly in our focus keyword article .

Tips for keyword research

This all might sound pretty straight-forward, but we know it’s a lot of work and easier said than done. When put into practice, you might bump into some common issues or questions. Here we’ll give you some tips to make it work!

Pro-tip: Want us to guide you through keyword research step-by-step? With videos, quizzes and other training material? Take a look at our keyword research training in Yoast SEO academy and let us help you!

How many keywords should you target? Well, we can’t tell you the exact number of keywords you should have, but we can tell you that you need a lot of them – as many as you can think of. However, more than 1000 keywords is probably too many! Even if you’re a reasonably small business, you’ll probably end up with a couple of hundred keywords.

But there’s no need to create pages for all of these straight away. You can add content bit by bit. Think about which keywords you want to rank for now (perhaps the more long-tail ones?) and which ones aren’t as important right away. Understand your priorities and plan the creation of your content.

Keep reading: Managing a growing blog: content planning »

In the past, each of the keywords you wanted to be found for got its own landing page. Today, however, search engines are so smart that they mostly use search intent to give searchers the best answer to their questions. The page that answers those questions best will rank on top. Search engines also understand subtle differences between keywords, so you don’t have to create landing pages for every subtle variation of a keyword, like synonyms.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use synonyms! In fact, synonyms can really improve the readability of your copy, so make sure to use them. Our Yoast SEO Premium plugin can help you with this; it allows you to optimize your content for synonyms and related keyphrases . You can fill in synonyms of your keyphrase under the SEO analysis tab in your Yoast SEO sidebar. If you want to fill in more than one, you can separate them by commas. When it comes to adding related keyphrases to your text, we have an awesome feature you will want to know more about. So let’s discuss that next!

Glossary of terms

In the following paragraphs, we use a few words that you might not be familiar yet. Such as related keyphrases, word forms and exact focus keyphrase. Don’t worry! We wrote a glossary of terms that can help you out when you’re not quite sure what we mean when we use a specific term.

Related keyphrases are words and concepts that deepen and broaden the understanding of your focus keyphrase. They even help Google better understand the topic you’re talking about . By using related keyphrases in your text, you can paint a complete picture of your focus keyphrase in the article you’re writing.

How do you find related keyphrases?

You might be able to think of a few related keyphrases, but we think using proper keyword data is the safest bet. That’s why we have a Semrush integration in Yoast SEO. It suggests related keyphrases and even shows you the search volume and trend for every keyphrase. As Semrush is one of the leading SEO and marketing software companies in the world, this will help you find the right related keyphrases for your content.

You can find this feature in the Yoast SEO sidebar and meta box. Simply go to the ‘Get related keyphrases’ button underneath the ‘Focus keyphrase’ field and click it. The first time you click this, you will need to connect your Semrush account or create an account and authorize Yoast SEO to use it. After you’ve connected your account, you will be able to click the ‘Get related keyphrases’ button and find related keyphrases right away:

keywords for assignment help

The related keyphrase feature is available for free, but if you use Premium you can also use those related keyphrases to optimize your content with the related keyphrase feature . This feature allows you to add related keyphrases or synonyms to a field in the Yoast SEO sidebar or meta box. That way you can easily optimize your content for multiple keyphrases and synonyms. If you want to know more about this integration, we have an article on how to use the Semrush related keyphrase feature .

Should you aim for the singular or the plural keyword? Well, this depends on the query. As Google learns more about the search intent of your query, it is able to better guess what you’re looking for. For instance, if you search for book , you get different results than if you search for books . Apparently Google thinks that in the first case you’re looking for a definition, in the second case it believes you’re intending to buy a book. So make sure you know what you offer on your page and that it fits with the query and results Google gives on that query.

Yoast SEO Premium has word form support , so it automatically detects all the different forms of your focus keyphrase (known as keyword stemming ). So, you no longer have to optimize your post for a specific word form. Optimizing your post has become a much more natural process. However, there are reasons why you’d still want to optimize for a very specific word form of a keyword. In this case, you can put your focus keyphrase in quotes: “best books ever”. Yoast SEO will now only take that exact focus keyphrase into account when checking your content.

Beware, you shouldn’t use your exact focus keyword more than once . If you do, your rankings might suffer from keyword cannibalization . Google has a hard time distinguishing between content that’s very alike. Therefore it might rank very similar posts or pages lower.

Not sure if you used a focus keyphrase before? The post why and how to export your focus keyphrases with Yoast SEO Premium will help you get an overview of the focus keyphrases you’ve used before and on what page. Also, Yoast SEO gives you a warning in the SEO analysis if you use one twice.

Did you find out you’ve already used the same or very similar keywords or keyphrases on various posts and pages? Then, it probably makes sense to audit your content and perhaps merge/delete/redirect some of it. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to solve keyword cannibalization issues .

Keyword research should be the start of any sustainable SEO strategy . The result will be a long list of keywords for which you’d like to be found. But the hardest part is still ahead: writing all that content. You should write articles and blog posts on every single keyword you would like to be found for. That’s quite a challenge. Check out our ultimate guide to SEO copywriting to get started!

Read on: WordPress SEO: The definitive guide to higher rankings for WordPress sites »

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Camille is a content specialist at Yoast. As part of the Search team, she enjoys creating content that helps you master SEO.

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8 responses to keyword research for seo: the ultimate guide.

h&m innovance

Wow, this ultimate guide on keyword research is incredibly detailed! As a blogger, I know how crucial it is to target the right keywords for SEO, and this article has provided me with a wealth of information and strategies to improve my keyword game.

The step-by-step process of conducting keyword research is well-explained and easy to follow. I’ve always struggled a bit with finding the best keywords, but now I feel more confident in selecting the ones that will boost my website’s visibility.

I appreciated the explanation of long-tail keywords and their importance. It’s fascinating how these less competitive keywords can drive highly targeted traffic. Any tips on how to use long-tail keywords effectively in blog content?

The section on understanding keyword intent was an eye-opener. I never realized how crucial it is to align my content with what the audience is actually searching for. I’ll definitely be implementing this in my content strategy.

I noticed that the article focuses mainly on keyword research for written content. How can I apply these techniques to optimize my video content for better search rankings?

It would be great to see some real-life examples of successful keyword research implementations. Case studies or before-and-after scenarios would be incredibly beneficial to understand the practical application.

Camille Cunningham

Hi there! Thank you for your comment :)

We actually have an article on how to do keyword research for YouTube which can help you figure out what keywords to use for your videos! If that’s not quite what you’re looking for, I can also recommend our article on video SEO in general. Good luck!

The Tech Tales

Clear and detailed information, thanks for sharing.

You’re welcome and thank you for your comment! :)

palash chandra barman

What an excellent analysis you have done on research. Your research is very good and it was an excellent guideline. Best recharge tools ever in your research.

Thank you very much, glad you found it helpful :)

Ehsan Samadi

This is a nice article on keyword research. I find it very useful. To my experience Ahref has the best keyword research tool ever. But of course there are many other useful tools available as well.

Thank you for your comment, Ehsan! Good to hear that it’s helpful, lots of luck with your keyword research :)

What Are Keywords? (and Why You Need to Know How to Find Them)

Feta Dennis

Updated: August 19, 2022

Published: May 11, 2022

What do you do when you have a question or want to find something? Quickly.

Marketer searching for how to optimize their keyword strategy online

If you’re like most, you open your laptop or unlock your phone, pull up a web browser, and head for the search bar. Once you say or type a few words and hit “enter,” you browse the results until you click on a page that looks promising. After the page loads, lo and behold: the answer you need.

The words you type into search engines play a role in how easily you find a blog or web page- and the same goes for the way people find your website. If you want people to find your website, you must understand what keywords are, why they matter, and best practices for how to find them. In this post, you will learn how to do so successfully and strengthen your content strategy on your own (search) terms.

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Navigate to what you need to know first about keywords:

What are keywords?

Why are keywords important, what are good keywords, considerations for choosing a keyword, how many keywords should i use, how to find keywords the right way, how to create unique content through niche keywords.

Keywords are words or phrases that users type into search engines to find relevant content for their queries. Because keywords come from search queries, incorporating these terms into your content strategy helps search engines rank your website pages and users find your content when looking for it. So it’s essential to know how to do keyword research to find keywords that relate to the topics on your website and create a good SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC (pay-per-click) advertising strategies.

For instance, if you were to type “bikes” into a search engine, the results would show a variety of results that correlate with those keywords:

Results for short keywords on the serp

Here, the term “bikes” is an example of a short keyword; you can count on keyword lengths to fall into two categories:

  • Short keywords that contain one or two terms
  • Long-tail keywords that contain typically three or more terms

As a result, short keywords are generally on broad topics, while long-tail keywords are all about specificity. Take a look at what a long-tail version of “bikes” would look like if you search “mountain bikes for beginners”:

Results for long tail keywords on the serp

Therefore, understanding which type of keywords to use on your website or blog requires performing some investigation. As you begin your keyword research , you will start to discern the difference between picking a related keyword and writing for a user’s intent .

The 3 Common Types of Search Intent

Behind every keyword is the reason the user makes the search query in the first place. This is known as search intent which falls into 3 categories: informational, navigational, and transactional .

Take a look at your keyword and think about what the user is really asking by making their query:

  • If they were to search, “what are nfts” they are feasibly looking for informational content that will explain this topic in detail.
  • If they look up “nft marketplace” they are likely searching for navigational content to take them to NFT platforms.
  • If they type “best nfts to buy now” they are probably trying to find transactional content that will help them complete a purchase decision.

By speaking to the “why” of the search query, you can tailor each content page to fully provide value to the user and deliver the best possible experience. But to fully grasp how to provide this value, you need to know the impact of keywords and why they matter to your website in the first place.

Now, while keywords are still useful tools for conceptualizing and planning your content strategy, their effectiveness is entirely rooted in context.

Keywords are important because they help you understand what users are searching for and the content you need to provide to meet their needs. The keywords you choose help define your content strategy and what topics to include on your website. This means incorporating the most relevant terms to increase your ability to rank and, in turn, increase website traffic.

For instance, say you've written SEO blogs about the various aspects of software. If you have been fleshing out a topic cluster to demonstrate your content authority, Google will have the context it needs when ranking websites like yours.

Pillar content connecting with cluster content through hyperlinks to create topic clusters

The keywords you include on your pillar and cluster pages will guide you to produce content on a range of user interests. But with the paradox of choice, how do you choose a good keyword? Your decision will depend on the marketing channel you’re writing for and your short or long-term goals.

Let’s dive into how to define good keywords across SEO and PPC channels to put you in the best position to benefit from your content.

What qualifies as a good keyword in SEO is different from what makes for the right target in PPC. But how do SEO keywords differ from keywords for PPC on the SERP?

Understanding this difference takes learning how to use SEO and PPC keywords to your website's advantage.

Using Keywords in SEO

A good SEO keyword strikes the ideal balance between keyword volume, competition, relevance, and intent based on your website’s authority. Therefore, adding keywords that encompass these factors, will allow you to rank and drive traffic long-term.

Plus, because SEO keywords are free- to rank for and when users click on your content- you can receive high value from the content you produce.

While the roster ranges both on and off the page, SEO content includes:

  • Website copy
  • Metadata like title tags or meta descriptions

Characteristics of metadata on the serp

  • A uthoritativeness
  • T rustworthiness

So before you dive into finding keywords, start by thinking about the topics that matter to your website. What are some things your audience may be searching for that would lead them to you? Have some ideas in mind? Start there.

Using Keywords in PPC

On the other side of Search are PPC keywords. PPC keywords are terms you choose to rank for in order to increase brand visibility and foster website growth. You can bid on your keyword choices, and when you win your bids, you will rank at the top of the SERP like these businesses below:

Paid search ads on the search engines results page

So, you can use keywords to create PPC ads promoting your products or services through platforms like Google Ads and Microsoft Ads . Then, when users select your ad, you pay for every click you receive.

Now, there are two main types of PPC keywords:

  • Branded keywords are words and phrases that include your brand’s name. Their purpose is to attract customers in your audience that are near a purchase decision.
  • Non-branded keywords are words or phrases that do not include your brand name. They help you gain new customers who may be searching for what you offer but do not know it yet.

Essentially, pay-per-click advertising generates immediate traffic that can convert into leads or sales. Subsequently, these conversions deliver a faster return on investment for the money and time you put into your ads. You will use PPC keywords to tailor your content to the audiences you decide to target.

When it comes down to when to apply SEO versus PPC advertising , it depends on your business goals . Will your business benefit from the long-term impact of Organic Search or the short-term results of Paid Search? While you contemplate this, remember SEO content concentrates on providing value to the reader, while PPC content focuses on promoting your products or services.

Still, the tricky part is that the internet is a busy place — making it virtually impossible to be the only person writing about any given topic. So even if you create rich content with keywords and provide the context for search engines to understand it, how do you stand out from the crowd?

Well, this is where the following keyword considerations come into play.

Monthly Search Volume

Monthly search volume (MSV) is the number of times people search for a particular keyword in a month. By considering the popularity of a keyword, you can tailor your content strategy and write about new content opportunities.

To find out how many people are searching for a particular keyword, you can use keyword research tools like the one below from Ahrefs . For instance, when you type in the word “insurance” the tool provides the following MSV estimate outlined in red:

The monthly search volume of keywords in ahrefs

What is keyword difficulty?

Keyword difficulty, otherwise known as keyword competition, measures how challenging it is to rank well for a specific keyword. In addition to how many pieces already rank for a keyword, your domain authority and paid search volume factor into the keyword difficulty for any given search query. The lower the difficulty, the easier it is to rank for that term.

Oftentimes, competitive keywords with higher difficulties are the ones in which everyone in an industry wants to rank. For example, broad keywords like "insurance," "marketing," or "technology" are all going to be highly competitive because they have a high volume of monthly searches. There is also a bevy of written content on these topics vying for a keyword ranking.

The monthly search volume of keywords in ahrefs

For your business to truly gain SEO ranking , it's important to consider less competitive keywords. Focusing on less keyword competition lets you demonstrate what makes you different and reach the best audience for your business.

If we return to our coffee shop example, concentrating on less competitive keywords is like branding yourself as the only 'specialty cat cafe' in the city. In this situation, it's easier to stand out because you're focusing on what makes you unique to your target buyer persona .

After all, the person looking for a cat cafe to sit in and relax is probably not the same person wanting a quick cup of coffee on their way to work — just like someone searching for "technology" is not the same person searching for "small business technology setup service."

Intent & Relevance

We've established that search intent is the "why" behind the terms users search, but did you know that search engines use this intent to rank content? This relationship is called keyword relevance: how closely related a keyword or phrase is to a piece of content.

For example, say you own a website about baking and you want to target the keyword “easy cake recipes” in your content. But instead of writing a thorough article on these recipes, you write more about the history of cake. Even though this article may be intriguing, it’s not relevant to your primary keyword— and you're unlikely to rank for your target. So be sure to keep keyword intent and relevance top of mind as you research.

It’s a question that has withstood the tests of time (spent on digital marketing): what are the optimal number of keywords for SEO content?

Well, for a long time digital marketers organized their entire content calendar around specific keywords — and the number of times to include these keywords on the page. They'd work with their teams to brainstorm focus keywords relevant to their products or services using keyword research tools . Then analyze all the variations of that keyword most likely to be a source of website traffic .

The details of Google ranking factors for content on the search engines results page

still worth the consideration because it is a matter of keyword density : the ratio of keywords on your page versus the overall word count of the piece.

Aside from using a formula to calculate this ratio, you can also conduct a competitive analysis to examine the keyword density for specific keywords your competitors target.

There's no magic trick to how to get on the first page of Google when it comes to SEO. To rank well on search engines, you need to consistently create rich SEO content and think about how it fits together in the long term. You must also be clear about your content strategy and the keywords you use to guide it.

Leveraging keywords to build your content foundation enriches your content marketing strategy and teaches you how to get traffic to your website — now, we're going to tell you how to find them.

  • Clearly define your target buyer persona
  • Narrow your focus and investigate keyword competition
  • Collect data, analyze keyword research results, and repeat

1. Clearly define your target buyer persona.

Having a clear understanding of your ideal audience is the key to any marketing endeavor. With keyword research, you must understand what questions you can answer or problems you can solve for this target buyer persona. At this point, it's okay to think in broad search terms regarding what those problems or questions are.

Buyer persona as defined as a representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data

For instance, if you're a PR agency, you need to find leads who are interested in hiring a third party to help them run a PR campaign. To do this, perhaps you begin by writing digital content that answers the question "How to run a successful PR campaign".

A broader content topic is a good starting point for building a pillar page for your topic cluster.

2. Narrow your focus and investigate keyword competition.

Once you determine the overarching question or problem to address, it's time to get more specific. Getting more specific allows you to cater your content to your target audience, and it helps you leverage less competitive keywords.

I like to narrow my focus keyword by using lsigraph.com . LSI, or latent semantic indexing, is a process of generating search query variations by determining how closely a given search term relates to other search terms. Think of latent semantic indexing tools as a way of brainstorming and generating a lot of keyword ideas quickly and easily.

Latent semantic indexing keyword research tool LSIGraph for idea brainstorming and generating

From there, use keyword tools like Google's Keyword Planner to analyze a competitive keyword. This analysis allows you to determine which keywords have the most potential for your business.

 Keyword research tool Google Keyword Planner for analyzing keyword competition

3. Collect data, analyze keyword research results, and repeat.

As you create content around specific keywords, keep in mind that a great content strategist doesn't just throw content out randomly to see what sticks. Consider using a tool like Google Search Console to track how your website is performing for your keywords.

Search traffic and keyword analysis tool Google Search Console on the platform

Google Search Console can also help you see whether your traffic is increasing from keywords you hadn't planned on ranking for and this informs your future digital content strategy. Having this knowledge is crucial to further refining your keyword planning and identifying content gaps that have significant potential to bring you new customers.

What's great about leaning into less competitive keywords is that it will allow you to build your brand authority within a specific field through clearly defined niche content. Niche content is a specialized writing topic that engages a specific audience's interests to make a viable impact in your industry’s content market.

If we reexamine our “marketing” example above, we see how difficult it is to make an impact by writing general content on “marketing” in such a saturated market. But what if your content targets a longer, more specific keyphrase like “marketing portfolio examples” and an audience of marketers trying to build or bolster their marketing portfolio?

Creating niche content by researching  less competitive keywords

Because these keywords have less SEO competition, it's easier to establish yourself as a content authority on a given subject — which is invaluable in SEO.

Whether you're just getting started with keyword planning or looking to amplify your current content efforts, keep your customer persona at the front of your mind, and don't be afraid to recalibrate your content strategy as you collect more data. Great inbound marketing is about having the right content reach your ideal potential customers when they need it, and getting smart with your keyword approach is a fantastic way to do that.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in April 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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When to trust an AI model

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Because machine-learning models can give false predictions, researchers often equip them with the ability to tell a user how confident they are about a certain decision. This is especially important in high-stake settings, such as when models are used to help identify disease in medical images or filter job applications.

But a model’s uncertainty quantifications are only useful if they are accurate. If a model says it is 49 percent confident that a medical image shows a pleural effusion, then 49 percent of the time, the model should be right.

MIT researchers have introduced a new approach that can improve uncertainty estimates in machine-learning models. Their method not only generates more accurate uncertainty estimates than other techniques, but does so more efficiently.

In addition, because the technique is scalable, it can be applied to huge deep-learning models that are increasingly being deployed in health care and other safety-critical situations.

This technique could give end users, many of whom lack machine-learning expertise, better information they can use to determine whether to trust a model’s predictions or if the model should be deployed for a particular task.

“It is easy to see these models perform really well in scenarios where they are very good, and then assume they will be just as good in other scenarios. This makes it especially important to push this kind of work that seeks to better calibrate the uncertainty of these models to make sure they align with human notions of uncertainty,” says lead author Nathan Ng, a graduate student at the University of Toronto who is a visiting student at MIT.

Ng wrote the paper with Roger Grosse, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Toronto; and senior author Marzyeh Ghassemi, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a member of the Institute of Medical Engineering Sciences and the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems. The research will be presented at the International Conference on Machine Learning.

Quantifying uncertainty

Uncertainty quantification methods often require complex statistical calculations that don’t scale well to machine-learning models with millions of parameters. These methods also require users to make assumptions about the model and data used to train it.

The MIT researchers took a different approach. They use what is known as the minimum description length principle (MDL), which does not require the assumptions that can hamper the accuracy of other methods. MDL is used to better quantify and calibrate uncertainty for test points the model has been asked to label.

The technique the researchers developed, known as IF-COMP, makes MDL fast enough to use with the kinds of large deep-learning models deployed in many real-world settings.

MDL involves considering all possible labels a model could give a test point. If there are many alternative labels for this point that fit well, its confidence in the label it chose should decrease accordingly.

“One way to understand how confident a model is would be to tell it some counterfactual information and see how likely it is to believe you,” Ng says.

For example, consider a model that says a medical image shows a pleural effusion. If the researchers tell the model this image shows an edema, and it is willing to update its belief, then the model should be less confident in its original decision.

With MDL, if a model is confident when it labels a datapoint, it should use a very short code to describe that point. If it is uncertain about its decision because the point could have many other labels, it uses a longer code to capture these possibilities.

The amount of code used to label a datapoint is known as stochastic data complexity. If the researchers ask the model how willing it is to update its belief about a datapoint given contrary evidence, the stochastic data complexity should decrease if the model is confident.

But testing each datapoint using MDL would require an enormous amount of computation.

Speeding up the process

With IF-COMP, the researchers developed an approximation technique that can accurately estimate stochastic data complexity using a special function, known as an influence function. They also employed a statistical technique called temperature-scaling, which improves the calibration of the model’s outputs. This combination of influence functions and temperature-scaling enables high-quality approximations of the stochastic data complexity.

In the end, IF-COMP can efficiently produce well-calibrated uncertainty quantifications that reflect a model’s true confidence. The technique can also determine whether the model has mislabeled certain data points or reveal which data points are outliers.

The researchers tested their system on these three tasks and found that it was faster and more accurate than other methods.

“It is really important to have some certainty that a model is well-calibrated, and there is a growing need to detect when a specific prediction doesn’t look quite right. Auditing tools are becoming more necessary in machine-learning problems as we use large amounts of unexamined data to make models that will be applied to human-facing problems,” Ghassemi says.

IF-COMP is model-agnostic, so it can provide accurate uncertainty quantifications for many types of machine-learning models. This could enable it to be deployed in a wider range of real-world settings, ultimately helping more practitioners make better decisions.

“People need to understand that these systems are very fallible and can make things up as they go. A model may look like it is highly confident, but there are a ton of different things it is willing to believe given evidence to the contrary,” Ng says.

In the future, the researchers are interested in applying their approach to large language models and studying other potential use cases for the minimum description length principle. 

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  • Marzyeh Ghassemi
  • HealthyML Group
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  • Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

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  • Artificial intelligence
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