Lesson 3:
Developing a Strategy

Objectives

Define a Topic

Brainstorm Search Terms

Build a Keyword Search

Resources

Home

Help

Table of Contents

EWU Libraries

Build a Keyword Search

Boolean Searching Using OR

In Brainstorm Search Terms, you expanded your list of concepts to include synonyms. You can include these synonyms in your searches by using the term OR. Including synonyms (similar terms) increases the number of results you retrieve.

OR is a special term that tells databases to look for synonyms of your search terms and lets you broaden your search.

For example, imagine you are researching crime films.

concept 1		films		synonyms		movies, motion pictures
concept 2		crime		synonyms		criminals, villains

Note that synonyms are combined into one set using the connector OR, and the two separate concepts are combined using the connector AND. Using AND and OR will instruct the database to retrieve everything with either term for concept 1 that also includes either term for concept 2.