CMP-125 (Blum, Spring 2025)

1. Phrase search: Use " " to keep two or more words together as a phrase

• "women in combat"
• "Game of Thrones"

2. Truncation: *   Most databases use the asterisk ( * ) to search variation of word endings

• war* - war, wars, warzone, warlord, warlock, Warhammer...
• school* -school, schools, schooled, schooling, schoology, schoolbag, schoolchild, schoolmate, schoolmaster, schoolboy, schoolmistress, schoolgirl...

3. Boolean Operators (Video)

AND - reduces your search results by adding more concepts

• "Iraq War" AND economy
• road* AND toll* AND increas*

OR - increases your search results by adding more concepts

• PSTD OR "Post-traumatic stress disorder" OR "posttraumatics stress disorder"
• rom-com OR romcom OR "romantic comedy"

NOT - eliminates a concept

• Ford NOT Henry
• insurance NOT "life insurance"
• eagles NOT football

4. User Brackets for Logical Execution of Your Search Statement

• “Iraq war” AND (PSTD OR "Post-traumatic stress disorder" OR "posttraumatic stress disorder") 
• (cit* OR stat* OR government*) AND (pay* OR fund* OR support*) AND (stadium* Or arena*)
• ("county college*" OR "community college*") AND tuition*

• ("driverless car*" OR "self-driving car*" OR "autonomous car*") AND (outlaw* OR ban*)

5. Search statement is not case sensitive

• Barack Obama = barack obama
• Walmart = walmart

6. Stop words - Do not use stop words unless in quotes

• in, of, the, or, and, etc.