Liberal Studies

TIPS FOR SEARCHING

Separate your thesis into the main concepts or keywords, and then use the following Boolean operators to narrow or broaden a search.

• AND – Narrows your search. Used to connect two or more concepts/keywords together. Example: education AND technology
• OR  – Expands results. Terms are searched separately. Use with synonyms. Example: Ipad OR tablet OR chromebook
• NOT - Eliminates a term. Example: early education AND children NOT infants
• Truncation – use the (*) sign in the databases to find variants of a word. Example: educat*  – finds educate, educated, educating, education, educational

Example thesis statement: School choice affects the academic achievement of students in urban areas.

Possible search statement: (“school choice“) AND (academic) AND  (achievement OR success OR completion) AND (middle school OR elementary school OR junior high OR secondary school OR high school)

Select a title from your results to see your options:

TOOLS - Email, print, cite, or save the title

VIEW IT - Click on the linked database to view the FULL ARTICLE. You may be asked to login once again.

Occasionally, you may see No full-text under a title. Although we may not have the article immediately available, there are still other options for you to obtain it.

Selecting the title will provide you with the option to request the article through InterLibrary Loan. After logging in and requesting it, the article will arrive electronically within 1 week, sometimes sooner. You will be notified via email when your article is ready to view.