Basic Search Techniques

Key words

as specific, unique and descriptive as possible
 

Quotation marks

to keep words, phrases together
 

+/- sign immediately preceding a word

to add/delete a word from a search
 

Truncation/Wild card

to locate multiple forms of same word
 

Rearrange your word order

change <+Collie +puppy> to <+puppy +Collie>
 

Capitalization

use in names, proper nouns
 

Commas to separate a series of names

<Chris Burch, Ron Goral, Joanne Lenburg>
 

Natural Language Searching

<Why is the sky blue?>
 

Too many hits on the first try?

try more than one search engine
try an advanced-level search
try a field search
use Boolean Logic: AND, OR, and NOT
read the "hints" file for your search tool for additional strategies

Evaluation | Search Strategies | Search Tools | Writing Summaries | Ready to Publish?