How to identify keywords in a text?

A "key word" is either a noun, a verb or an adjective.
Nouns are words that signify someone or something
Adjectives describe nouns
Verbs are words that show an action, occurrence or state of being

Let's find keywords in the following sentence:


Archaeology is the study of human activity for the recovery and analysis of material culture.

Nouns: archaeology, study, activity, recovery, analysis, and culture

Verbs: In this case, there's only one verb in the sentence. The verb "to be" in its present form: "is".

Adjectives: Let's see whether there are any words that are located before the nouns.

1. Archaeology - no adjective related
   
   
2. Study - no adjective related
   
   
3. Activity is accompanied by the adjective human ("human activity")
   
   
4. Recovery - no adjective related
   
   
5. Analysis - no adjective related
   
   
6. Culture is accompanied by the adjective material ("material culture")
   
   

We have successfully identified all the keywords in this sentence! Good job.

Now we are ready to create some notes using these terms. Here's how we can write this down:

Topic: Arch. = study of h.a.
Topic description: Recovery, analysis of material culture

Practice keyword search in multiple texts and your reading speed will increase dramatically.

Good luck!