Library Guide for English Language and Literature Studies (Literary Studies in English): Search Tips

Common search tips can help you quickly retrieve information and improve your efficiency in finding resources you need in LRC's databases. 

Use “ ” searching for a phrase (two or more words together) in the order you put them.

Example: “African American literature”.
Search results will contain words in the specific order you have entered.

Use asterisk (*) to find a group of words with the same part

E.g. postmodern* will find words such as postmodern, postmodernism, postmodernity, etc.

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More details about Primo VE

To create a search query that tools like  Primo VE, JSTOR, EBSCO, or IEEExplore can understand, you will need to use keywords.

Many of us are used to searching using what’s called "natural language" to find what we’re looking for on places like Baidu, Bing, or Amazon. While some research tools have started adding natural language or semantic search capabilities, many have not.

Keywords will help you:

• Find relevant information quickly from a broad range of sources
• Modify or adjust your inquiry as you learn more about your topic and status of the scholarly conversation

Here is an example of identifying keywords in a research question from English Language and Literature Studies (Literary Studies in English):

What are the female characters like in Shakespeare's plays?

What are the key components that you see here? Look for nouns, unique descriptors, and geographic or demographic distinctions to narrow in on results that will help answer the question. Writing out the question and highlighting the keywords you see is also a great idea. Like this:

What are the female characters like in Shakespeare's plays?

The keywords found in this question are:

• female characters
• Shakespeare