Boolean Basics
This Boolean operator narrows your search by requiring all terms to be present
AND
You need to exclude all results that mention “bias” when searching for “media representation.” What Boolean operator would you use?
NOT
What is a search query to find research papers that include “civil rights” and exclude “1960s”?
- | NOT
If you want to find information on ‘urban planning’ without results related to ‘traffic congestion,’ which symbol should you add to the term to exclude it?
DASH ( - ) before 'traffic congestion'
This Boolean operator broadens your search to include any of the terms.
OR
The Boolean operator you would use if you want to search for sources that mention either "mythology" or "legends"
OR
When you want to limit your search results to official websites of universities and colleges discussing 'literacy criticism' which domain restriction should you apply?
Literary Criticism site:.edu
What search would you use to find articles that explore “feminism” and also mention “intersectionality”?
What is "feminism" AND "intersectionality"
If a student wants research from .edu websites about ‘climate change’ but not ‘policy,’ what search query could they use?
What is climate change -policy site:.edu?
This Boolean operator excludes specific terms from your search results
- | NOT
To find articles that discuss both “climate change” and “global warming,” which Boolean operator would you use?
AND
To search for papers on “rhetorical analysis” or “discourse analysis” but exclude “linguistics,” what would the query look like?
What is "rhetorical analysis" OR "discourse analysis" -linguistics?
Describe how you can search for “post-colonial literature” but exclude sources that specifically deal with “Africa.”
What is "post-colonial literature" -Africa
To find sources on 'public health' specifically from government websites, what would you type in the search?
What is public health site:.gov
Use these to group terms and control the logic of a search
Parentheses
The way you would structure a search to find sources about "Shakespeare" and "tragedies", but exclude "comedies"
What is Shakespeare AND tragedies -comedies?
If you're search for content on 'renewable energy' only from government official sites, which domain restriction would help filter your results to official sources?
Renewable energy site:.gov
“If you’re researching ‘mental health’ policies but don’t want any results from social media sources, how would you refine the search to exclude domains like ‘facebook.com’ and ‘twitter.com’?”
What is mental health -site
If a researcher wants articles related to 'space exploration' but not mentioning 'Mars' how can they format their query using a specific symbol?
Space exploration -Mars
Used to ensure that all words within it appear in the search in the exact order.
Quotation marks
The way you would use parentheses to prioritize terms in a complex search involving "education," "technology," and online learning"
What is (education AND technology) OR online learning?
If you're researching 'sustainable agriculture' but don't want to see any results about 'pesticides' which symbol would you use to exclude that unwanted term?
Sustainable agriculture -pesticides
To find studies that focus on “identity” and either “culture” or “ethnicity,” how would you write the search?
What is "identity" AND ("culture" OR "ethnicity")
A student is researching “digital literacy” in “high school education” but wants to avoid sources that focus on “elementary schools.” What search should they use?
What is "digital literacy" AND "high school education" -elementary schools