Skip to Main Content

Library Services on eFundi: Search Strategy

Constructing a Search Strategy

A search query consists of all the keywords you identified during the topic analysis of your assignment/paper's title.

e.g. if you are a student in Communication Studies and the topic of your assignment/paper is  "The role that political propaganda plays in mass media"

you might construct your search query along any one of the following lines:

  1. (mass media OR broadcasting OR radio OR television) AND propaganda AND (politic* OR government*)
  2. propaganda AND ("freedom of speech" OR "freedom of the press" OR "right to know") AND (media OR broadcast* OR journalis*)
  3. role AND propaganda AND "mass media"

Boolean Operators

 

Boolean Operators:  AND, OR, NOT

 

 

AND:

 

journalism AND war AND propaganda

 

You will retrieve articles that:

 

  • contain ALL your keywords
  • will be more SPECIFIC
  • are LOW in QUANTITY
  • are high in QUALITY

 

 

 

 

Boolean operators

AND

You will retrieve information with ALL your keywords COMBINED

 

 

OR:

 

broadcasting OR television OR radio

 

You will retrieve articles that:

 

  • may contain ANY of your keywords
  • will be more NON-SPECIFIC
  • are higher in QUANTITY
  • are lower in QUALITY

 

 

 

Boolean operators

OR

You will retrieve information with ANY one of your articles

 

NOT:

 

media NOT journalism

(orange NOT fruit)

 

  • You will EXCLUDE certain keywords
  • will be more SPECIFIC
  • are LOWER in QUANTITY
  • are HIGHER in QUALITY

Boolean operators

NOT

You will retrieve information that EXCLUDE certain keywords

 

Search Tips

Refine your Search Query

Refine your search query:

Q:  How do I decide which terms to use?

A:  Do a topic analysis

 

Q:  How do I identify synonyms?

A:  Use subject dictionaries & encyclopedias

 

Q:  What if I want to use several terms / words / keywords?

A:  String keywords together with Boolean operators “and, or, not” e.g. (media OR broadcasting OR radio) AND journalism NOT propaganda

 

Q:  What if there are several possible terms to use? 

A:  Synonyms are good and will broaden your search.  Also include different ways to spell a word e.g.  organization / organisation, inflection / inflexion

 

Q:  What if the concept consists of more than one word? 

A:  Put phrases in quotation marks e.g. “small scale farming”

 

Q:  How to I include all inflections of a word? 

A:  Use truncation, e.g. particip* to also find participate, participates, participant, participants, participation, participating, participant)