| Questions | Considerations and Suggestions |
| What information do I need? | Write down your information need in narrative form. Consider the type of information you need: background, current, statistical, etc. |
| What is the main topic? | Identify the key topic(s) of your search. |
| Can this main concept be represented by any other terms? | Generate synonyms for your key topic(s). |
| What are the supporting concepts? | Consider aspects such as therapy, diagnosis, etiology, etc. Consider also population, such as infants, Gen X, African-Americans, women, etc. |
| Can the supporting concepts be represented by any other terms? Or by a feature of the system? | Generate synonyms for your supporting concepts. If you already have an idea of which resource you will use, consider features of that system (subheadings, limits). |
| What format is needed? Can a feature of the system represent this? | Consider internal and external determinants of the format. (See above for more information on format components.) |