Answered By: University of Illinois Library Last Updated: May 15, 2019 Views: 2585
Answered By: University of Illinois Library
Last Updated: May 15, 2019 Views: 2585
To narrow or broaden search results, try using Boolean searches. Boolean searching is a method of using search tools called operators that modify search results using keywords to broaden and narrow search results.
The operators are:
- AND, which combines words together to narrow a search
- OR, which searches for one term or another to broaden a search
- NOT, which excludes words from a search to narrow it
The modifiers are:
- an asterisk *, which is placed at the end of a word stem and pulls results with the same stem and different endings to broaden a search
- parenthesis (), which are used with OR statements to specify that the results should only mention one of the keywords
- quotation marks " ", which will return the exact word or phrase searched with no variants
Read this library guide page on Boolean searches to learn more.
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