Choosing Keywords
Keywords are the words or phrases used to describe the MAIN CONCEPTS of your research question or thesis statement. They are the words you will use to create a search in a database. Watch this video to help you use language that the search tools understand so that you can get useful results for your topic.
Understand Boolean Operators
Boolean operators are attributed to English mathematician George Boole, who, in the 1800s, devised a mathematical language to define the relationships between values or words. Boolean logic defines logical relationships between terms in a search. The Boolean search operators are AND, OR and NOT. You can use these operators to create a broader or more narrow search.
Watch this video Using Boolean Operators (2:14) from California State University, San Bernardino.
Phrase Searching, Truncation & Wildcards
- Phrase Searching allows you to search a multi-word phrase as one concept.
- Truncation allows you to search the variant endings of a word.
- Wildcards allow you to search for variants within a word.
Watch this video from California State University, San Bernardino to apply these methods in your searching (3:13).
