When beginning research, it's a good idea to develop a concise expression of your search topic or research question. After doing so, identify the topic's two or three most important concepts.
Keywords
- Take keywords or main ideas from your research question
- Finds words in articles and books you've read on the topic
- List synonyms and/or use a thesaurus
Get More Results (Broaden Search)
- Gather your synonyms and use OR.
- Example: "New Orleans" OR Louisiana OR "Gulf Coast"
- Get all endings of root words in one search, using the asterisk (*)
- Example: Get all endings of the word flood -- flood, floods, flooding, flooded etc.
- Example: flood*
Get Less Results (Narrow Search)
- Use AND between search terms. Both search terms must show up in your results.
- Example: "New Orelans" AND disaster AND prepar*
Search Within Parts of Article:
- Within a database, limit to certain "fields"
- Examples: Titles, abstracts, and subject headings
