• UL Instruction
  • Getting to know the University Library
  • Internet Research
    • Colophon
    • Contents
    • The greatest Internet pitfalls
    • Internet versus UL sources
    • Step 1: What do you need?
    • Step 2: Where should you search?
    • Step 3: How should you search?
      • Play with your search terms
      • Use Boolean operators
      • Use thesauri for synonyms or related terms
      • Use ‘truncation’ for different endings of your term
      • Example of Google 'Digging'
    • Step 4: How do you evaluate the quality of a source?
    • List of sources used
  • References and citations
  • RefWorks
  • The basics of scholarly publishing
  • What is a book?! for philosophy students
  • Online Scholarly Collaboration
  • Research impacts: sources & metrics
  • Searching for scholarly information / management and economics
  • Searching for scholarly information / social sciences
  • Feedback form
  • University Library

Experiment with your search terms

You can refine your search results by making your search terms very specific; so be certain about what you’re looking for! You can also refine or broaden your search results by throwing fewer or more search terms into the search engine. Think also of

• general versus specific terms;
• synonyms;
• plural/singular of your search term;
• multiple meanings of your search term;
• your search term in different languages: for example, use both English words and their Dutch translation (but be mindful of shifts in meaning);
• differences in American and English spelling (for example behavior/behaviour);
• exact word combinations.

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