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Research Guides

WRR104: Writing Reports

Tips for building your search

Choosing your Search Terms

Think of the language that will be the most effective for your search and keep track of search terms that produce the best results. Ask yourself: 

  • Will your topic be discussed in the news using scholarly terms or would other terminology be more effective?
  • Has the terminology changed over time or based on location? 

 

Designing your Search Strategies

Some databases allow you to enter search terms on separate lines (e.g., enter a keyword the top line and researcher or activist's last name below, so as to articulate your search request)

BOOLEAN OPERATORS

Use Boolean Operators allow you to widen or narrow the search for your keywords and target your research topic:

AND (narrows your search - all terms must be found somewhere in the resource record)

  • disability AND institut*

  • "video games"  AND violence

OR (widens your search - one or more terms must be found)

  • autism OR Aspergers 

  • instagram OR "social media" OR "Tik Tok" 

 

BOOLEAN MODIFERS

Use Boolean Modifiers also allow you to widen or narrow the keywords searches:

Quotations marks (search for exact spelling of specific keywords, phrases, or names)

  • "social media""freedom of speech""Greta Thunberg" 

  • "racial bias" OR racism 

  • University OR College   

Asterisk * (widen your search results, in certain databases by only searching for the characters before *

  • institut* = institutions, institution's, institutitional

Using Search Operators

Search operators are a set of commands that can be used in almost every search engine, database, or online catalogue.  The most popular  operators are AND, OR, and NOT. These must all be in capital letters to work. Other operators include parentheses, truncation, and phrases.

Use the following search operators to broaden or narrow your results.

AND Use this word between concepts to narrow your results.  e.g. sensory AND perception
OR Use this word between related concepts.  e.g. habitat OR ecosystem
NOT Use this word to exclude terms from your search. e.g. virus NOT corona
Quotations Use quotes to search for a multi-word concept. e.g. "International Year of Indigenous Languages"
* Use the asterisk symbol to include alternate word endings. e.g. cultur* will search for culture, cultural, and culturally
? Use a question mark to include variations in spelling in your search. e.g. wom?n will search for woman, women
(  ) Use brackets to create separate groups of actions in your search. e.g. "climate change" AND (ecosystem* OR habitat*) AND Ontario

Pictured below is an example of how all of the above search operators can be combined to refine a search that will help locate sources describing the experience of women participating in the Black Lives Matter movement in Canada.

Advanced search using brackets, quotations, an asterisk, and the AND, OR, and NOT commands.