A search strategy uses keywords to describe the concepts of your research topic or question. Most of the time, you will need to revise your search strategy along the way, adding or changing the keywords you use. You will need to experiment with your search strategies, but here are some search tips and word combinations.
Always try and think of different ways to say the same thing.
Ebsco is very good at suggestions for additional keywords to use and your textbook!
Place phrases in quotes so the whole phrase is searched, not the individual words
"fake news"
"false news"
"human rights"
"environmental justice"
"internet censorship"
"free speech"
"freedom of speech"
"social media"
"global justice"
"negative liberty"
"positive liberty"
"wealth inequality"
"black lives matter"
"capitol siege"
"affirmative action"
"entitlement theory of justice"
"equality of opportunity"
"climate change"
"global warming"
Use an * for truncation to retrieve various endings of the root word
libert* = liberty or liberties or libertarian or libertarianism
freedom* = freedom or freedoms
limit* = limit or limits
ethic* = ethic or ethics or ethical
environment* = environment or environments or environmental
sustainab* = sustainable or sustainability
right* = right or rights
regulation* = regulation or regulations
Use the theorists
Use the theories
Use -or- between search terms, the database will search for any of them. This is useful because there are usually be multiple ways to refer to your topic/concept or when any of the words will do:
"fake news" or "false news" or disinformation or misinformation
poverty or "low income" or poor
environment* or sustainab*
"climate change" or "global warming"
"capitol siege" or "capitol insurrection" or "capitol riot"
"gun control" or "gun laws" or "gun regulation*"
"freedom of speech" or "free speech"
Use -and- between search concepts, the database will only show you search results that contain those search terms.
liberit* or freedom
and
"fake news" or "false news" or disinformation or misinformation
--------
"global justice"
and
environment* or sustainab*
-------
equality
and
health
and
minorit* or race or racial
--------
"equality of opportunity"
and
"affirmative action"
-------
rawls
and
"affirmative action"
-----
"freedom of speech" or "free speech"
and
debate or controversy or argument
and
college* or universit*
----
"gun control" or "gun laws" or "gun regulation*"
and
liberty
other keywords from your assignment / book chapter
