When searching online, do you find yourself locating way too many unrelated articles and feel overwhelmed by the number of results? If so, you may need to narrow your results with the use of phrase searching.
Phrase Searching:
- Put quotation marks around phrases
- Keeps phrase together within search results
- Retrieves articles with phrase rather than individual words = precise results
- Titles: "The Wizard of Oz"
- Commonly used phrases: "close but no cigar"
- Topics: "global warming"
Phrase Search 1
- No quotation marks around working mothers
- Retrieved 118,942 articles
- Many of the articles have nothing to do with the topic even if they contain the words - working and mothers
Phrase Search 2
- Quotation marks around working mothers
- Retrieved 2,873 articles
- Only found articles that contain the words working mothers together and in that order
For your next research paper, remember to use phrase searching to narrow your search results for retrieval precision. If you have any questions on phrase searching, contact the reference desk.
-Theresa Whitehead, Distance Learning Librarian
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