The easiest way to search for information electronically is to enter a couple of keywords into the search box of the search tool and see what type of results you get.
For example, to find information on the ability of Bell Telephone companies to compete in long-distance markets, you might use just these keywords and phrases:
Bell, telephone, long-distance, competition
This strategy, however, will often result in too few, too many, or irrelevant results.
In order to retrieve the most relevant results, you will need to construct a SEARCH STRING. A search string is a combination of keywords, quotation marks, truncation symbols, and Boolean operators which you enter into the search box of a database or an Internet search engine.
For example, when searching for information to support the statement Performance enhancing drugs raise serious ethical questions for athletes you could use this search string:
“performance enhancing drugs” AND ethic* AND athlet*
Look below for more information on quotation marks, truncation symbols and boolean operators.