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Ottawa High School - ENG 1002 Kerestes & SPH 1001 Johnson

Search Strategy

Organize and strategize

  • Have a strategy!
  • Write down your topic
  • Brainstorm terms with the same meaning
  • Search for keywords, not sentences
    • Do: addiction alcoholism
    • Don't: What are the effects of alcoholism and addiction?
  • Group phrases within quotation marks
    • Do: "substance abuse"
  • Review descriptions/records of useful items for more search terms
  • Keep track of where you have searched and what keywords were helpful
  • Ask the experts for some help

What are you searching for?

Library databases can be picky about the search terms you choose. Don't search by simply typing in a sentence!

In the following example, the highlighted words would be your search terms. 

  • What are the effects of masks on teaching and learning in the college classroom?
  • What challenges do masks present to communication between students and instructors?
  • What strategies are there to alleviate challenges brought on by mask wearing in the classroom?
    • Masks AND classroom
    • Masks AND college students
    • Masks AND educat* AND communication
    • Mask-wearing AND classroom AND Covid
    • Masks AND effects AND "teaching and learning"
    • Masks AND effects AND school OR college OR classroom
Using Phrases to Search

For search terms that include multiple words, use quotes " " to keep the database from splitting up the phrase. "teaching and learning" will search for the exact phrase "teaching and learning."

Boolean Operators

Use the Boolean Operators AND, OR, and NOT to create search statements to enter in databases, SOAR, Google, et cetera. 

Examples:

  • College AND Technology AND Learning
  • (College OR Higher Learning OR University) AND (Technology OR Computers) AND (Learning OR Instruction)
  • (Technology AND Learning AND Elementary) NOT College
Truncation

Truncation allows you to search for multiple terms with the same root at once by using an asterisk:

  • Educat* = Educate, Education, Educational, Educator
  • Child* = Child, Children, Childish

 

Source: Carnegie Vincent Library, Boolean Operators: Pirates vs. Ninjas