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Composition II - ENG 102: Searching Basics

This guide provides resources for Compsition II: ENG 102

Keyword Chart


Taken from UCMerced Library Psychology 120 guide. https://libguides.ucmerced.edu/c.php?g=15926&p=87312

Search Tips

A. Boolean Operators: define the relationship between search terms. When you use a Boolean search, keywords are combined by the operators AND, OR, and NOT. You can use these operators in the database search interface to create a very broad or very narrow search. 

  • AND combines search terms so that each search result contains all of the terms. The AND operator limits the search because the sources in the results must contain both terms. Example: diabetes AND diet
  • OR combines search terms so that each search result contains at least one of the terms. The OR operator expands the search because the sources in the results can contain either term. Example: diabetes OR diet
  • NOT excludes terms so that each search result does not contain any of the terms that follow the NOT operator. The NOT operator limits the search because the sources in the results cannot include the term following the word NOT. Example: diabetes NOT diet 

B. Quotation marks: use quotation marks to search for a phrase

  • "health psychology"
  • "dissociative identity disorder" 
  • "eating disorders"

C. Truncation: Use a symbol, the asterisk * is the most common, to look for variant endings of a word

  • prevent* will search for: prevent, prevents, prevention, etc.

D. Combine search strategies: Combine search strategies for more efficient searching

  • For example: (teenagers OR adolescents) AND "eating disorders"

Keyword Searching

A keyword search looks for words anywhere in the book or articles record. Keyword searches are a good substitute for a subject search when you do not know the standard subject heading. Refer to Keyword Chart at the left. 

Credo Reference Search

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Credo Reference helps you build your research vocabulary with dictionaries, glossaries, thesauri, and other reference materials.

Tips for Finding Keywords & Search Terms

  • Use a visual thesaurus like Snappy Words, Visuwords, or GraphWords
  • Use references sources like Credo Reference to get background information and key words. (See widget above)
  • Most EBSCO databases have a tool to help you discover subject terms. See EBSCO Academic Search Complete > Subject Terms
  • When you find a useful article, look at the database Subject Headings and record them as possible search terms.
  • Each database has its own list of subject terms.