Use connecting words to reduce of increase the amount of information you receive from a database search.

1. HOW TO NARROW OR
BROADEN A SEARCH

2. I DID SOME RESEARCH
FOR MY PAPER AND:
I FOUND A GAZILLION
ARTICLES ON MY TOPIC.
I FOUND ZILCH
ON MY TOPIC

3. FOUND TOO MUCH?
Couldn’t find anything?
56,724,991 ARTICLES
0 ARTICLES

4. AND OR NOT
USE CONNECTING WORDS
TO NARROW OR BROADEN YOUR SEARCH

5. USE AND TO GET FEWER RESULTS
SAUDI ARABIA: 985,884 RESULTS
HOCKEY: 873,350 RESULTS
SAUDI ARABIA AND HOCKEY
42 RESULTS

6. AND MEANS THAT ALL WORDS MUST BE PRESENT.
SMOKING 2505 RESULTS
CANCER 9435 RESULTS
SMOKING AND CANCER
735 RESULTS

7. USE OR TO GET MORE RESULTS
BASEBALL: 20,590 RESULTS
BASKETBALL: 19,303 RESULTS
37,258 RESULTS

8. OR MEANS THAT ONLY
ONE WORD MUST BE PRESENT.
ALABAMA 341,000 RESULTS
GEORGIA 935,000 RESULTS
ALABAMA OR GEORGIA 1,260,000 RESULTS

9. OR SHOULD BE USED WHEN YOU ARE SEARCHING FOR
SOMETHING THAT IS CALLED DIFFERENT NAMES.

10. USE THE WORD NOT
TO NARROW A SEARCH.

11. SUPPOSE I WANTED TO DO A
SEARCH ON “GOLDEN STATE”
I DID A SEARCH AND
I LIKED THE RESULTS.
BUT A NUMBER OF RESULTS DEAL WITH THE
GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS BASKETBALL TEAM.
CAN I GET RID OF ARTICLES ABOUT THE BASKETBALL TEAM?

12. USE NOT TO GET FEWER RESULTS
GOLDEN STATE NOT WARRIORS
MY ORIGINAL SEARCH HAD 97 ARTICLES.
I ENDED UP WITH 60 AFTER USING NOT.

13. YOU CAN ALSO USE QUOTATION
MARKS TO NARROW YOUR SEARCH

14. USING QUOTATION MARKS AROUND YOUR SEARCH TERMS
MEANS THAT ALL OF THE TERMS WILL APPEAR IN YOUR RESULTS
AND THEY WILL BE IN THAT PARTICULAR ORDER.

15. AN EXAMPLE
SUPPOSE YOU WANTED A PIECE OF APPLE PIE.
SO YOU WENT TO A DATABASE SEARCH ENGINE,
AND DID A SEARCH ON APPLE PIE.
AND THIS IS WHAT YOU GOT:
THIS IS NOT A PIECE OF APPLE PIE.

16. PUT YOUR SEARCH TERMS IN QUOTATION MARKS,
THIS IS WHAT YOU GET:
A PIECE OF APPLE PIE.
“APPLE PIE”

17. REVIEW
AND MEANS THAT ALL OF YOUR TERMS WILL APPEAR IN
YOUR SEARCH RESULTS. THIS NARROWS YOUR SEARCH.
OR MEANS THAT ONLY ONE OF YOUR TERMS IS NEEDED
FOR YOUR SEARCH RESULTS. THIS BROADENS YOUR
SEARCH.
NOT MEANS THAT RECORDS WITH THOSE TERMS WILL
NOT BE IN YOUR RESULTS. THIS NARROWS YOUR
SEARCH.
QUOTATION MARKS REQUIRE SEARCH TERMS
TO APPEAR IN ORDER. THIS NARROWS YOUR SEARCH.

18. FOR MORE INFORMATION ON HOW TO NARROW AND
BROADEN A SEARCH, TAKE A LOOK AT THESE YOUTUBE VIDEOS:
https://youtu.be/n2xDRDASVf8
Broaden and Narrow Your Search Results
How to power search with boolean
https://youtu.be/_X2UhyzWfR8