Writing 100 (Spring 2025, Porter)

Quotation Marks

" "

To search for specific phrases, enclose them in quotation marks. The database will search for those words together in that order.

Examples:

• “conspiracy theory”
• “global migration”
• “public health”
• “food desert”

Boolean Operators

AND, OR

Join together search terms in a logical manner.

AND - narrows searches, used to join dissimilar terms
OR - broadens searches, used to join similar terms

Examples:

• "conspiracy theory" AND "artificial intelligence"
• "conspiracy theory" OR "birds aren't real"
• "conspiracy theory" AND (victimhood OR "moral injury") AND politic*

Truncation

*

Truncate a word in order to search for different forms of the same word. Many database use the asterisk * as the truncation symbol.

Example:

• Truncate the word theory theor* to search for theory, theories, theoretical etc.
• Add the truncation symbol to the word educat* to search for educate, educates, education, educational, educator, educators etc.