Module 2: Search Strategies

Phrase Searching

Phrases are concepts that are generally expressed with more than one word. Phrase searching directs the computer to look for words which appear in the exact order that you type them. Examples include: black market, heart disease, or alternative medicine.

If your search terms appear in a database record in a different order or are separated by other words, then that record will not appear in your results. Sometimes just typing the words in the order that you want them is enough, but in some databases and web search engines you need to use quotation marks around the phrase. For example:

• "welfare reform"
• "global warming"