1. Identify the keywords or key phrases in your research need.
Example:
Does the recent election in Burma reflect a move away from a totalitarian government?
2. Identify synonyms for those words and phrases:
| election |
Burma |
totalitarian |
government |
| vote |
Myanmar |
junta |
rule |
| voting |
|
military |
regime |
| vot* |
|
"human rights" |
|
3. Use search techniques to improve your search results:
| vot* = vote OR voting |
symbols to expand search terms (truncation) |
| election AND Burma |
AND, OR, NOT to combine search terms |
| “human rights” |
quotation marks around phrases |
4. Use the "Identifying Search Terms Worksheet" in the left Get Help with Search Terms box to try it yourself.
