Expanding Your Search

If you want more items than your search retrieved, there are several ways to expand

your search strategy.

Expand by Using Synonyms

flu = influenza car = automobileroad = street = highway germs = bacteriadoctor = physicianlawyer = attorney

Expand by Using the Boolean Operator OR

• Finds materials that contain at least one word or phrase and sometimes both

• Use OR when you want to BROADEN your topic

to link all the terms related will findMANY more results.

If you search for:

Ibm OR mac = 31,374 articlesibm OR mac OR pc’s = 31,764 articlesIbm OR mac OR pc’s OR personal computers = 39,481Ibm OR mac OR pc’s OR personal computers OR macintosh = 45,483 articlesIbm OR mac OR pc’s OR personal computers OR macintosh OR “international business machines” = 48,477 articles

(This is more than anybody wants to know about personal computers, but it shows the power of the "OR" operator.)

Limit by Using the Boolean Operator AND

• Finds materials that contains both words or phrases

• Use AND when you want to NARROW your topic

Suppose you are looking for information on body

image and how it is influenced by the media.

body image = 1,170 articlesmedia = 90,850 articlesbody image AND media = 87 articles

Limit by Using the Boolean Operator NOT

• You can use the NOT to exclude specific terms from your search.

Suppose you are looking for articles on cancer, but you do not want your articles to talk about the diagnosis of cancer.

• Cancer = 88,042 articles

• Cancer NOT diagnosis = 80,589 articles

REFINING YOUR SEARCH

Use a Thesaurus

Thesaurus: a verylarge list of exactwords used assubject headings ina database (eachdatabase has its

ownlist of words)

Expand by Using Wild Cards or Truncation

• Wild cards are symbols that take the place of letters. They may appear either inside a word or at the end.

• The term truncate (to shorten by cutting off) is sometimes used. Each database uses its own wild card symbol.

?

!

$

*

To use a wildcard will findMANY more results

If you search for:Wom*n = 209,532 articles

Among these are: Woman = 36,952 articles Women = 181,805 articles Womyn = 46 articles

Diet*

Will find: Diet Diets Dietary Dietitian Dieting

Limiting Your Search

Most electronic databases have features which help you

to limit your search.