Skip to Main Content

ENG 112: College Composition II (Pool-LO-Summer 2020)

Formatting Keywords

 

When typing words into database search boxes, you want to be as precise as possible. Think of talking to a database as talking to a two-year-old. Just like a two-year-old, the database needs explicit instructions.

To best accomplish this, there are some key conventions to use when searching in databases:

(1) Nest related terms in parenthesis, using "OR" between them. This tells the database to look for any of those terms

     ex. ("Covid 19" or coronavirus or pandemic)

(2) Put phrases (search terms of more than one word) in quotation marks. This tells the database to look for that exact phrase.

     ex. ("amusement parks" OR "movie theaters" OR concerts)

(3) Link nested sets of related terms with AND. This tells the database to look for sources that have at least one term from each set.

     ex. ("Covid 19" or coronavirus or pandemic) AND ("amusement parks" OR "movie theaters" OR concerts)

Locating Articles

You may also go to our NOVA Libraries homepage and select the Articles tab. Look under 'Recommended Databases for Most Topics' to find relevant databases. You may also look under Databases by Subject to find a listing of additional subject databases.  For example, if you are researching COVID-19 and the effect on businesses/the economy, you may want to look under the heading Business & Marketing.

Remember not to write sentences in the search box. Review the information below for information on formatting your searches.

Also, make sure you look for toolbars that provide print, email, and citation options.

Creating Your Search Statements

Once you have your research question or research topic, what strategies should you use to get the most relevant results in the shortest amount of time?

undefined

Article Databases

 

For a lot of your topics, where you are looking specifically at effects of COVID 19 and not broader topics such as pandemics in general, there will not be a lot of peer-reviewed (academic) articles since those take a minimum of several months to create and publish. In this case, most of your sources may be newspapers. Some databases for locating newspaper articles include: