CNX 206: Understanding Terrorism

Here are some strategies for search statement language for searching in library databases:

• Use an * to search for multiple forms of a word in a single search:
  • terror*   will search for: terror, terrors, terrorizes, terrorism, terrorist, terroristic
  • recruit*   will search for: recruit, recruits, recruited, recruiter, recruitment 
  • negotiat*   will search for: negotiate, negotiated, negotiating, negotiator 
  • psycholog*   will search for: psychology, psychological, psychologist

​

• Use "quotation marks" to have multiple words searched together as a phrase:
  • "united states"
  • "foreign policy"
  • "religious terrorism"
  • "domestic terror*"

​

• ​Use the word OR (in capital letters) to search for words with similar meaning -- always place within (  ):
  • (women OR female)
  • (disengag* OR leave OR quit)
  • (join OR motiv*)

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• Use the word AND (in capital letters) to combine different topics/concepts:
  • (women OR female) AND (join OR motiv*) AND terror*
  • education* AND (level OR attainment) AND terror*
  • "religious terror*" AND (unique OR different) 

While this Screencast was created for another CNX 2 course, all of
the strategies discussed are
relevant to any CNX 2 course!