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ENVI 197 - Senior Thesis - Martin - 2023/24: Search Terms

Search for Information

Search Terms

What key terms will you use in searching to help answer this question?  Use a Thesaurus or Wikipedia to help you with synonyms.

      General, Related Words:                                        Synonyms:

  _____________________________                    _______________________________

  _____________________________                    _______________________________

Example

Water purifiers, filtration stations, water filters, water filtration, filtration systems

 

Search relevant databases using the keywords you came up with, combining synonyms:

( _____________________  OR  _____________________  OR  ____________________ )

AND

( _____________________  OR  _____________________  OR  ____________________ )

 

Example:

("water purifier*" OR "filtration station*" OR "water filt*" OR "filtration system*")

AND

(university OR campus OR college)

Tip:

If you are searching for a phrase, put it in quotes. If you have a word that you want to search for the singular and plural form, truncate it with * (refugee* searches for refugee or refugees)

These are examples of Boolean Searching, which is described in depth on this guide, provided by CSUN.

Exact phrases

Sometimes, you can find relevant results using phrases in quotes that relate to your topic. The asterisk * can be used to search for multiple words with the same root. For example:

"local food" OR locavore

"waste reduction" AND recycl*

"university sustainability"

"food cart*" OR "food truck*"

"energy efficiency" AND (college* OR universit*)

"genetically modified foods" OR "GMO foods" OR (GMO AND food*)

"solar panel returns" AND "power grid"

vegan AND (diet* OR food*)

"water import*" AND ("Southern California" OR "Los Angeles" OR "San Diego")

"sea otter*" AND "marine reserve*"

Boolean Operators

Boolean Searching: "AND" narrows results by requiring all terms to be in each search result. "OR" expands your search by allowing any of the terms to be in each result. "NOT" limits your search by excluding the term appearing after the NOT operator.