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English Composition II: Advanced Searching

Using Quotation Marks

Boolean Operators

Boolean operators are a great way to narrow down your search results. There are three Boolean operators: OR, AND, NOT. When you use a Boolean operator you will want to make sure you capitalize every letter so the database or Discovery knows what it is.

OR will include resources that mention one or more of your keywords.

  • Example: "Insider Trading" OR Enron will show resources that mention both Insider Trading and Enron as well as those that mention only one of the keywords

AND will only include resources that mention all of your keywords.

  • Example: "Insider Trading" AND Enron will show resources that only mention both Insider Trading and Enron.

NOT will only include resources that mention one of your keywords and none of the others.

  • Example: "Insider Trading" NOT Enron will show resources that only mentions Insider Trading.

Boolean operators can also be combined to narrow your search results even more.

  • Example 1: "Insider Trading" OR Bribery) AND Enron will bring up resources that mention Insider Trading and Enron, Bribery and Enron, and Insider Trading and Bribery and Enron.
  • Example 2: ("Insider Trading" AND Bribery) NOT Enron will bring up resources that mention both Insider Trading and Bribery and will remove results that mention Enron.

Helpful Tips

Are you having trouble finding enough sources? Try these helpful hints.

  • Look at the sources at the end of the articles that you have already selected and see if they will work for your paper.
  • Academic eBooks are a great way to find additional sources. In most cases each chapter is written like a journal article, so sources are listed at the end of each chapter. They may also list further readings.
  • Google Scholar has a cool tool called Cited by. Take one of your articles and insert the title into Google Scholar to see what other articles cited that work. You may find one that works for you!

Boolean Operators

Helpful Tips