How to choose Key Words in SOP

[NoMoreABD]

I am not used to this request, so I was hoping you guys might have some insight on this:

I need to give 5 key words for my proposed research (PhD) to go along with my SOP. I'm not sure how to choose them, cause I'm not sure what is the purpose of this.

So what I'm thinking is to choose 2 general concepts in my field that repeat in my statement, sort of headlines of the subject I want to research, and three more that are very relevant to my statement and appear in my POIs web profiles.

How do you think I should choose? How general/specific? Only exact words that appear in my SOP?

Thank! Your advice, as usual, is highly appreciated.

[surefire]

I had to do something like this for a grant application. I interpreted the "keywords" to resemble the type that you might see at the forefront of an academic article (you know, after the abstract but before the article itself?). I assumed that the purposes of the keywords are the same: to orient the reader regarding your approach and to summate your place in the current literature.

I was able to do more than 5 words, so I was pretty specific. You might want to go more mid-range, though the options at your disposal depend on your discipline. I think that the words should be focused enough to show what you're doing, but not so specific that they are jargon-y or potentially alienating to someone reading the app.

For example, my fields are sociology and law, but I wouldn't write those as my keywords. Instead, I wrote socio-legal studies and sociology of knowledge, as these are more specific and relevant to the research that I want to undertake. Alternatively, I used the term "critical discourse analysis" to cover my approach, but didn't go so far as to identify "speech act analysis" (the specific framework that I'm using, but is a little too hyper-specialized for a keyword).

I think my keyword breakdown was something like: 3 to identify discipline/field, one for methodology, 2 for theoretical approach, 1 to identify the structure under scrutiny, 1 to identify vested interest population.

It sometimes hurts to have to self-categorize in this glib way, I wish you the best of luck!

[NoMoreABD]

I had to do something like this for a grant application.

Thanks Surefire! very helpful.