Finding Information: Step Two
Refine Your Topic: How You Use Your Search Terms Really Does Matter
- Do you have any terms that have different grammatical forms? How about singular versus plural? You can search relatively easily for variations by truncating, wildcarding or stemming. First identify the forms of the word, then think of it as lowest common denominator for words. Typically the ? or * symbol will be used. We'll use * for our examples -- look in the help section of the specific electronic database you are using to see how to do it in that database.
Think of different forms of a word:
- manage, management, manager, managerial, manages -- all have manage in common -- try manage*
- child, children, child's -- try child*
- compute, computes, computer, computation, computational -- try comput*
How about representing alternate spellings:
- women, woman -- try wom*n
- macdonald, mcdonald -- try m*cdonald
- color, colour -- try colo*r
BUT, you can not begin with a symbol!
- *male does not work for male or female!
- Do any of your search terms have alternate spellings (also sometimes called "British-isms"). Some of the most common spelling differences are:
- using "ae" instead of "e" (encyclopaedia vs. encyclopedia, orthopaedic vs. orthopedic, archaeology vs. archeology)
- using "-ise" instead of "-ize" (memorialise vs. memorialize)
- using "s" instead of "c" (practise vs. practice)
- using "h" instead of "j" (marihuana vs. marijuana)
- using "gh" instead of "g" (yoghurt vs. yogurt)
- using "-me" instead of "-m" (programme vs. program)
- using "ho" instead of "h" (diarrhoea vs. diarrhea)
- using "re" instead of "er" (theatre vs. theater)
- using "ph" instead of "f" (sulphur vs. sulfur)
- using "ou" instead of "o" (flavour vs. flavor, colour vs. color, behaviour vs. behavior)
- using "que" instead of "k" (cheque vs. check, banque vs. bank)
- using "-ux" instead of "u" (bureaux vs. bureau)
- using "oe" instead of "e" (oesophagus vs. esophagus, oestrogen vs. estrogen)
- alternate spellings (soy vs. soya -- soybean vs. soyabean)