Always think about different ways to say the same thing. Start with keywords to describe your topic, within results, look at the abstract and subject headings to identify additional keywords to use.
Search Strategies:
Start with keywords
Place phrases in quotes so the whole phrase will be searched together and not the words individually
"marriage equality"
"gay marriage"
"gender role"
"gender identity"
"don't ask don't tell"
"mental health"
"coming out"
Place an * at the end of the word to retrieve all the variations
role* = role or roles
feminis* = feminism or feminist or feminists
sex* = sex or sexes or sexuality
homosexual* = homosexual or homosexuals or homosexuality
college* = college or colleges
universit* = university or universities
asexual* = asexual or asexuality
combine word/s using connectors.
or: either term/s are included (to connect synonyms or like concepts)
"gender role" or "gender identity"
gay or homosexual* or lgbt or lesbian* or transgender
law or legislation
intersex or intergender
college* or universit*
and: all terms must be included (to connect concepts)
"lgbt adoption" and law
homosexual* and "civil right*"
Put it all together:
(lgbt or gay or lesbian* or homosexual*) and adoption and (law or legislation)
transgender and (university or college*) and (housing or dorm*)
Within databases, limit to scholarly journals
Ebsco - either Scholarly (peer reviewed) Journals or Academic Journals
When searching an individual place the name in quotes-- "last name, first name".
"Cook, Tim"
"Sylvia, Rivera"
"Maddow, Rachel"
"Cooper, Anderson"
Consider additional words to narrow your results:
criticism
interview*
biography
Add other keywords that describe the profession:
singer
musician
director
athlete
media
Other keywords that describe any issues
racism
discrimination
inequality
class
acceptance
violence
If you still retrieve too many results or results are not relevant, in the ebsco databases, change the search field from Select a Field (optional) to SU Subject and last name, first name or AB Abstract. If you need basic biographical information about an indiviaul consider searching through the databases listed under "Biographies".
