Creating Searches
A search statement consists of words and punctuation that are entered in the search box of a library catalog, article database or Internet search engine to find matching records. The simplest search statement is a single word. Creating search statements involves these processes:
- identify words to describe your topic
- show relationships using and, or, not
- search efficiently
- modify your searches to change results.
Identifying Keywords
Keep track of the words that are used to describe your topic. You will use these words as keywords later as you search for books, articles or web sites.
- Brainstorm for a list of words based on your topic question.
- Look for words that best describe your topic.
- These words will be found in the encyclopedia articles and other reading you do while selecting your topic.
- Find synonyms, broader and narrower terms for each keyword you find in order to expand your search capabilities.
TIP: Select synonyms, broader topics, and narrower topics because you may not know which ones will be the most valuable at various points in your research.
Research Question: How accurate is testing for performance enhancing drugs?
| TESTING | PERFORMANCE ENHANCING DRUGS |
| Mandatory testing, policy, education, hematology analysis | Doping in sports, anabolic steroids, ephedrine, metabolic stimulants, baseball |
Using AND, OR, NOT
Because the Internet is so huge, searches will often provide too many results. Boolean logic, particularly the use of the Boolean operator AND, is the most important technique for limiting results in any database or search engine search. The principal Boolean operators are:
| Boolean Operators | Use for | Examples | |
|---|---|---|---|
| AND | + | Use AND to get fewer search results | doping and testing |
| OR | Use OR to get more search results | anabolic steroids or ephedrine | |
| NOT | - | Use NOT to get fewer search results | spyware not adware |
TIP: Be aware each database and search engine may use Boolean logic in a different way. For example:
- Some systems have options to help. For example, Academic Search Premier has an option in the "Expand Your Search" option at the bottom of the search screen to automatically AND your search words.
- In some search engines, you can use the plus sign "+" in place of AND. Just type the plus sign before each word you want included in the search results.
Spelling Counts. Computers will only find the exact word you type because they are matching letter by letter. If you type the word Secure, for example, you will not find articles with the word Securely.
Truncation. Truncation is a technique that allows your to look for a word and any of its possible endings.
- This is sometimes called using a "wildcard" as it usually enables the searcher to insert a symbol (like an asterisk * , or ?) as a wild card at the end of a word. The most common symbol is the asterisk (*) which you type by entering ctrl + 8.
- Truncation instructs the computer to look for the root of the word and all alternate word endings:
| Example | Results |
| test* | test, tests, testing, |
Phrase Searching. In most resources you will search, it is possible to search for a phrase, or two or more words appearing next to each other. The most common method for doing this is to surround the phrase with quotation marks. For example, a search for "right to privacy" will look for those words, only when they appear next to each other.
Modify Your Searches
Different searches will give you different results.
- Choosing different search words from your keyword list will give you different results.
- Don't just try one search and call it good. You may miss important information.
Practice
Write down the answers for this assignment. You will be using them later to complete the exercise at the end of the tutorial.- Make a list of keywords you can use for your research.
- Write a list of searches that you may be able to use for your research.
Continue -
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