Use keywords to search - not sentences!
Keywords are the most important words in your topic.
Example topic: Do video games make teenagers violent?
Keywords:
Example topic: Does time management make college students more successful?
Keywords:
Example topic: What are the causes of diabetes in children?
Keywords:
You can also use a Keyword Generator! This one was created by the UT Libraries
Wait, there's more. Try the following techniques to make your searches even more dynamic!
Phrase Searches
Often keywords are more than one word. Most search engines let you put quotation marks around these so only results with the exact phrase are listed.
"rap music"
"smart phone"
Truncation
Shortening a keyword to its basic root and adding a special character (usually an asterisk "*" or "?") at the end will tell the library search engine to search for variations on the word.
Searching for politic* will find:
POLITICS, POLITICAL, POLITICIAN
Note: Check the search engine help screens to see if this can be done.
Parentheses
Combines concepts and techniques. The search engine will search for what's grouped or nested inside the parentheses first.
("rap music" OR "hip hop") AND censorship
