Phrase searching is a technique that allows you to search for two or more words as an exact phrase. In most databases, this is accomplished by enclosing the search terms in double quotation marks (e.g. “affirmative action”).
The default in most databases is to assume the Boolean operator AND, which means they search for the entered words anywhere in the record and not necessarily together.
For example, here is a search for alcohol abuse in Academic Search Complete. You can see some results mention both words in the title, but not together:
The quotation marks instruct the computer to search for the terms in the exact order in which they are entered.
Here’s a revised search for “alcohol abuse,” where all the results mention both words together:
Phrase searching is most useful when searching for well-established, commonly used phrases, titles, or names, such as:
“charter schools”
“double helix”
“to be or not to be”
“James Bond”
“The Old Man and the Sea”
“Gulf of Mexico.”
It is important in phrase searching that the phrase be well established and that variations of the phrase are not likely. The enclosed search terms must be matched in the database exactly as entered.
“rock ‘n’ roll” would not find “rock and roll.”
“Maya Angelou” would not find for “Angelou, Maya,”
“John F. Kennedy” would not find “John Fitzgerald Kennedy.”
Although most databases use double quotation marks for phrase searching, there are some exceptions. Always check each database’s Help page to determine what is used for phrase searching.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word, truncate means “to cut short.” That is exactly what happens when you use truncation, also called “stemming.” It broadens your search to include various word endings and spellings.
With this technique, you cut off your search term to its root and add a symbol, usually the asterisk *, that instructs the computer to search for all words that begin with those letters, no matter which letters may follow.
Computer databases are literal. Usually the database searches only for the exact keywords you enter. The problem is that the English language often has various forms of the same word, such as singular and plural, or a different suffix or ending.
For example, here is a search for children in Research Library (ProQuest). Notice that all the results have that keyword.
However, there are other common words with different endings. Child, for instance, is the singular form of children.
The asterisk * instructs the computer to search for all words that begin with child.
Here’s a revised search using child*, where you can see now we’re getting different, similar keywords:
Take your keyword and cut the word down to its root. Don’t worry about an official definition of “root;” just cut the word off at a point that will allow for multiple endings.
Add the truncation symbol at the end of the root. The symbol used for truncation varies from database to database. Both EBSCO (e.g. Academic Search Complete) and ProQuest (e.g. Research Library) databases use the asterisk (*).
The computer will now search for all words that begin with the root and have any ending. If your search term was teen* (in a database using the asterisk), the computer will search for teen, teens, teenager, teenagers, teenage, etc.
Truncation symbols are not standardized. Be sure to check the Help screen or Search Tips link to find out what symbol to use in a specific database or catalog.
Here are a few more examples:
Educat* = will search for educate, education, educated, educator, educators, educating, etc.
Pollut* = will search for pollution, polluted, pollutant, pollutants, pollute, polluting, etc.
It may take a little practice to decide where to cut off the word.
For example, if the word computer is one of your keywords, where would you cut off the word? If you used the root compute*, the computer would not search for computing, because the letter “e” does not appear in computing. The root must match exactly, so comput* would be the better choice.
On the other hand, sometimes the root can be cut off too early in the word and you may receive a lot of irrelevant results. Using the same example, if you cut off the word computer at comp*, you would get many irrelevant results such as company, compensation, or competition.
Source: "truncate, v." OED Online. Oxford University Press, May 2018. www.oed.com/view/Entry/206946. Accessed 31 May 2018