Search strategies basics (go on) Truncation and Wildcards

Truncation and Wildcards

 

Truncation and wildcards broaden your search capabilities by allowing you to retrieve multiple spellings of a root word or word stem, such as singular and plural forms.

A wildcard is a special character, such as an asterisk (*), question mark (?), or pound sign (#), that replaces one or more letters in a word. Truncation is using a wildcard at the end of a root word to search multiple variations of that root word. Check a database's help section to identify what symbol is used for a wildcard

 

Example of Truncation:

•       Expands the search to locate all words beginning with the same root.

•       Example: teen* will return teen, teens, teenage, teenager, etc.)

 

Example of A Wildcard

·         A Wildcard is used in the middle of a word to match usually known variants of a term. A wildcard usually represents a single character,

·         Example: wom?n will return woman, women, and womyn.

 

The next day Mr azamuddin did teach us about phrase searching in class and we did

 few exercise on it and he showed us with the help of his computer how to enter search phrase in starting to find information.

                                                Phrase Searching

 

•       Phrase searching is when you use a string of words (instead of a single word) to search with.

•       You might be looking for information on information literacy. Each one of these words has a different meaning when standing alone and will retrieve many irrelevant documents, but when you put them together the meaning changes to the very precise concept of “information literacy". For the database to understand your search, you should put your phrase between brackets ( ) or inverted commas ". Type your search as follows:

•       “information literacy" or
(information literacy)

•       Some databases will use the inverted commas and others the brackets. Look at the "Help" function of each database to see what you should use for that particular database.

•       Not all databases allow phrase searching. Look at the "Help" function of the database to find out.

•       Some databases will use the inverted commas and others the brackets. Look at the "Help" function of each database to see what you should use for that particular database.

•       Not all databases allow phrase searching. Look at the "Help" function of the database to find out.

•       By using phrase searching you will retrieve fewer results!