Complete the Search Strategies Tutorial to practice some of the tips and tricks mentioned below
If your keywords are not bringing up the results you want, try using the "Subject: Thesaurus Term" section in many of the EBSCOhost databases, or the MAINSUBJECT designation in many Proquest databases. This will give you alternative keywords based on the search you initially conducted. It can be really helpful if you need to narrow your search to a more specific topic. Another way to find alternative keywords is to look at the subject terms list included in relevant articles you find.
Rather than reading an entire article at first to determine if it is relevant to your topic, read the Abstract. An abstract is simply a summary of the article, and it will give you a good idea what the full article is about. However, don't just read the abstract and cite it in your paper. The article will contain more detailed information, and you will be able to see it in the context in which it was intended.