Advanced search skills can help refine your search results. Use these strategies when looking for information from the library databases or Google.
Put quotation marks around words that you want to search as a phrase.
"Harlem Renaissance" “Yellow Wallpaper” “women in literature”
Shorten terms and add an asterisk * to search for all forms of the root word.
symbol* = symbol + symbols + symbolism
Use Boolean operators to refine your search results.
AND - Use AND to find articles with all of your search terms.
"Yellow Wallpaper" AND feminism
“Harlem Renaissance” AND poetry
Plath AND metaphor
“Road Not Taken” AND symbolism
OR - Use OR to find articles that have either search term in them.
irony OR sarcasm OR satire
"mother figure" OR "maternal transference"
"Le Guin" OR LeGuin
"bad thoughts" OR "evil thoughts"
Put parentheses () around your ORs if other Boolean operators are present.
guilt AND ("bad thoughts" OR "evil thoughts")
"Three Strangers" AND (irony OR sarcasm OR satire)
NOT - Use NOT to eliminate terms you do not want in your search results.
(graffiti OR "street art") NOT "American Graffiti"
