Lesson 3:
Developing a Strategy

Objectives

Define a Topic

Brainstorm Search Terms

Build a Keyword Search

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Build a Keyword Search

Truncation

Truncation is a search strategy that allows you to search for words that start the same but have multiple endings like crime, criminal, and criminals.

Truncation is especially useful when you want a database to return both the singular and plural versions of a word like film and films.

The problem is that not all databases use the same truncation symbol. Usually, you need to look at the "help" screen to find out what symbol it uses. Four common truncation, or "wildcard," symbols are:

Using truncation can simplify your search string. For example, the search string below is quite long.

(film OR films OR movie OR movies OR motion picture OR motion pictures)

Using * as a truncation symbol, the search string can be simplified to:

(film* OR movie* OR motion picture*)

Consider: Are there any terms in your search string that you might use a truncation symbol with?