| Search Tip | Symbol | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Truncation - broadens your search to include various search endings and spellings | Asterisk: * |
child* will search child, children, childbirth, childbearing, childish, childless, childress Note: this might retrieve words you weren't expecting |
| Wildcard - takes the place of a letter in a search term | Question mark: ? | wom?n will search woman, women, womyn |
| Phrases - searches words in a particular order or for a particular known phrase | Quotation marks: " " |
"social justice" searches for the specific phrase social justice will return results as if you've typed social AND justice, which means that other words could appear in between the words social and justice. |
| Boolean Operators - connect search words together using different logic |
AND OR NOT |
intersectionality AND feminism will return results that include both search terms (fewer results) intersectionality OR feminism will return results that include either search term (more results) intersectionality NOT feminism will return results that include intersectionality but no results that include feminism. Be careful when using NOT because it may remove more results than you realize. When typing Boolean Operators, be sure to make them CAPITAL LETTERS. |
| Grouping terms and applying precedence - combined a variety of terms and boolean operators in your search | Parentheses:( ) | intersectionality AND (feminism OR womanism) will return results that include the term intersectionality and at least one of either feminism or womanism. |