ESL 088WG - West - Nancy Hamadou (Schipper): Useful Search Tips

Need help narrowing your topic more? Try Gale's Topic Finder to narrow it down more. It's a useful way to visualize your topic and to get more insight into ways to break your topic down. "Online Dating" was the topic used to create this breakdown.

• Try searching your primary or main keyword from your topic (Online Dating, Suicide, Homelessness, or Cyber Bullying).
• If you aren't finding many articles or you have too many to choose from try to limit the search by putting quotations around your phrase
  • Example: "online dating" or "cyber bullying"
    • Doing this will help you search for the phrase exactly as it is and in that specific order
  • Also try adding more secondary keywords to help narrow your topic more
    • Example: Online dating...search also with the words "safety or danger or risks" (see screenshot below)
      • using boolean search terms (AND, OR, & NOT) help include more words or eliminate words you don't want to appear in your search.

• Refine your results if you have too many
  • Refine the Publication date to reflect current up to date sources
  • Refine the Format section to reflect Magazines, News, & Trade Publications
  • Refine the Subject section to see if one more closely fits your topic
  • Refine the Geography section to reflect current sources in the United States