You can use truncation to search for all the variants of a word. In many databases, you can do this by placing an asterisk towards the end of a word so that it acts as any combination of letters that follow the preceding word.
For example:
Gives you all words that start with writ!
This includes: write, writing, writer, and written.
When searching databases, you can use the Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT to combine your key terms and retrieve relevant search results.
Here is a short video that explains how to utilize Boolean operators!
McMaster Libraries [McMaster Libraries]. (2016 November 28). How Library Stuff Works: Boolean Operators (AND OR NOT) [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCAULDuMcso.
Place quotation marks around your multi-keyword phrases to make sure that the search engine or database pulls up results containing the complete phrases instead of irrelevant results that contain the individual words in any order.
For example:
will find information on all people named "John," and all people named "Smith."
However:
will only give you results for people named "John Smith."
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