One thing students struggle with is finding too much irrelevant information in the databases. This is because of one very specific problem: computers are literal. They will search for your words wherever they can, which means you might get a result that uses your words in a different context. Luckily there are some simple tricks to help you tell the computer what to do. Here are the three I use the most:
The asterisk can be typed using Shift + 8 on a standard keyboard and looks like a star. Most databases automatically look for plural forms of word (ex. searching drug also finds drugs) but some words that have various endings you may want to search for.
You may think that you don't need to find all the things, but using the asterisk not only finds more, but also changes the relevance rankings of the results.
While there are only about 10 more articles using overdos*, the order in which they are presented changes. An article that uses your search term more frequently is going to be listed first, and by expanding your search to include all the versions of overdose, you find articles that are more focused on the topic.
Putting multiple words inside of quotation marks tells the database or search engine to look for those words together as a phrase. Be on the lookout for words that provide a specific meaning the word it comes before to after.
Words with Multiple Contexts | Words that Describe Previous Word | Type in search box, In quotes |
---|---|---|
college | tuition, cost, debt, loans | "college tuition" |
military | participation, enlistment, service | "military enlistment" |