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  Developing Effective Search Strategies

Developing Effective Search Strategies

Constructing a Search Statement

The six steps below will help you to construct effective search terms. In the examples included below, we've taken a single research question:

Is online or internet instruction appropriate for adult students, especially females, in a college or university setting?

and shown how each step might be carried out.

Step 1: Divide your topic into individual concepts.

Example
Concept #1 Concept #2 Concept #3
Level of schooling/education
Type of instruction
Specific population

Step 2: List synonyms in each column to expand the possible vocabulary that can describe each individual concept.

Example
Concept #1
Level of schooling / education		 Concept #2
Type of instruction		 Concept #3
Specific population
  • Higher education
  • Colleges
  • Universities
  • Online teaching
  • Internet in higher education
  • Teaching--computer networked resources
  • Adult college students
  • Nontraditional students
  • Women college students

Step 3: Connect the terms in each column [i.e., each individual concept] with "OR."

[Doing so expands the search results for each concept by using synonyms.]

Example
Concept #1
Level of schooling / education		 Concept #2
Type of instruction		 Concept #3
Specific population
  • Higher education

    OR

  • Colleges

    OR

  • Universities
  • Online teaching

    OR

  • Internet in higher education

    OR

  • Teaching--computer networked resources
  • Adult college students

    OR

  • Nontraditional students

    OR

  • Women college students

 

Step 4: Connect the separate COLUMNS [separate concepts] with "AND."

[Doing so narrows the search results to retrieve only articles that mention all of the search terms.]

Example

Concept #1

Level of schooling / education
AND

Concept #2

Type of instruction
AND

Concept #3

Specific population
  • Higher education

    OR

  • Colleges

    OR

  • Universities
 ...and...
  • Online teaching

    OR

  • Internet in higher education

    OR

  • Teaching--computer networked resources
 ...and...
  • Adult college students

    OR

  • Nontraditional students

    OR

  • Women college students

 

Step 5: Convert terms in the chart to a search statement that can be used in a database.

[NOTE: Always enclose the "OR'ed" terms with parentheses.]

Example

(higher education OR colleges OR universities) AND (online teaching OR internet in higher education OR teaching--computer networked resources) AND (adult college students OR nontraditional students OR women college students)

Step 6: Enter your search statement into the database search boxes.

Example

Screen shot of Cat database search page

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This document was created by Carol Wright, Associate Librarian at Penn State's University Libraries.
Instructional design assistance provided by Ann Luck, Senior Instructional Designer for Penn State's World Campus.

Please send any questions or comments concerning this page to caw4@psu.edu.
Copyright © June 2001, The Pennsylvania State University.