Research Guides: COMM 361 (Thornton-Sides): Boolean Operators

Boolean Operators

Boolean Operators Video

More Thoughts on Boolean Operators

Boolean Operator	Search Example	Retrieval Formula	When to use
AND	Obesity AND Children	Finds sources containing both terms	This strategy targets your search. Using “and” plus an additional search term will help you narrow down results if you find too much information.
OR	Global Warming OR Climate Change	Finds sources containing either one or more search terms	This strategy gives you more results. Using “or” is helpful when there is more than one search term (synonyms) for your topic. If you aren’t sure whether you will find better results with one term or a synonym you can use “or” and search for both at once.
NOT	Wolverines NOT X-Men	Excludes sources containing the second search term	This strategy makes your search more specific. Using “not” is helpful when your search terms relate to more than one thing and you are likely to find a lot of unrelated information. The “not” operator helps you bypass that unrelated information quickly.

Fine-tuning Your Search

Additional Search Tips

"Phrase search" - Use quotation marks to search for the exact phrase.

Example: "no child left behind"

Truncation * - Use an asterisk to find variations of a word. An asterisk after the root of the word will find all variations of that word, including singular and plural.

Example: environment* (finds environmental, environmentalist, environmentalism etc.)

(Grouping/Nesting Keywords) - Use parentheses as a way to group all your search terms together.

Example: (teaching or learning) AND communication

Keywords and Synonyms

It's important to identify the most important words for your topic - these are your keywords. Then find synonyms and related forms so that you're armed with several different searching options.

Here's an Example:

Research Question: What is the evidence that the death penalty prevents crime?

Keywords: death penalty, prevent, crime

KEYWORD: death penalty
Synonyms (same MEANING of keyword, but a different word)	Related Forms of Keyword & Synonyms (same ROOT word, different form)
capital punishment
execution

KEYWORD: prevent
Synonyms (same MEANING of keyword, but a different word)	Related Forms of Keyword & Synonyms (same ROOT word, different form)
deter	prevention
stop	deterrent

KEYWORD: crime
Synonyms (same MEANING of keyword, but a different word)	Related Forms of Keyword & Synonyms (same ROOT word, different form)
murder	crimes
	criminal

You can now try all of these terms while searching.

Acknowledgments

Materials on this page have been adapted from the Cosumnes River College Library.