Keywords-11

Keywords

Take some time to consider what you are looking for.  Use your textbook, class notes, websites, and newspaper articles to identify keywords. 

For example, keywords related to Humanitarian Engineering and Hurricane Maria might include:

  • Engineering, infrastructure U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
  • Humanitarian, helping, activist, social justice
  • Water, water supply, water access, water system
  • Power, power supply, power grid, electrical, energy

Advanced Keyword Searching

Once you have identified relevant keywords for your topic, here are some tricks to combine your keywords for better search results.

 

To limit your results, use the AND

Boolean search using the keywords Hurricane Maria AND power grid

To expand your results, use the OR

Boolean search using the keywords water access OR water supply

To search for variations of a word, use the Asterix*

Engineer* to search for engineer, engineers, or engineering

 

To search for an exact phrase, use "QUOTES"

Advanced search using the keywords Hurricane Maria AND engineer* AND "power grid" OR "power supply"

 

To search for a subject instead of a keyword, search in Subject rather than Anywhere

Advanced search using the keywords Hurricane Maria (anywhere in the document) AND engineer* (subject of the document)