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SOCI 1101H: Introduction to Sociology Honors (Robinson)

Search Builder

Search Strategy Builder

The Search Strategy Builder is a tool designed to teach you how to create a search string using Boolean logic. While it is not a database and is not designed to input a search, you should be able to cut and paste the results into most databases' search boxes.

  Concept 1 and Concept 2 and Concept 3
Name your concepts here    
Search terms Search terms Search terms
List alternate terms for each concept.

These can be synonyms, or they can be specific examples of the concept.

Use single words, or "short phrases" in quotes

or

or

or

or

or

or

or

or

or

or

or

or

SSB created by University of Arizona Libraries and located at GitHub

Choosing Search Terms

When you're choosing words to search for, remember that there are many different ways to describe the same idea. For example:

fighting: violence, aggression, assault...

You can't find what you don't search for. If you search only for fighting, you won't find sources that only use the term violence. Remember to search for variations of your term.

Combining Search Terms with AND, OR, & NOT

Use AND to join different concepts. 

Use OR to combine similar or related concepts.
Examples
schools AND violence
schools AND violence Venn diagram
schools OR education
schools OR education Venn diagram

 

Combine similar/related (OR) terms with different (AND) terms for better searches. 

Group each set of related (OR) concepts in parentheses.

Example

violence AND (education OR school) 

Venn diagram of violence AND (education OR schools)