ENG1020 English Composition (Kass): How to Search

• Use keywords instead of sentences
  • Keywords are the important words in the question you are asking
  • Ex: "What changes occur in the brains of adolescents?" 
  • Also use synonyms of your keywords when your search results aren't relevant
• Advanced Search functions help you narrow down your results:
  • full text articles
  • publication year
  • publication type
  • subject category
  • boolean operators
    • AND narrows the search
    • OR widens the search
    • NOT removes unrelated results
    • Truncation widens the search by looking for related words
      • In databases, use the word root (e.g. smok*)
      • In Google, use a tilde (~) in front of the search term to search for the term and its synonyms

Ways to narrow down a topic:

• Who: Who is involved with the topic?  
• What:  What aspect of the topict?
  
• Where:  Where does the topic apply? Is it a local, regional, national, or international event?
• When:  Is the topic seasonal or historical? Is it a current trend?
• Why:  Why is this topic important? If it's an event or trend, why does it happen?

• Am I finding articles that agree on the topic?
• Are the articles giving multiple opinions on the topic?
• Do I have enough information?
• Are the articles related to each other? 
• Are they talking about the same subject? If not, are these subjects related?