Week 6

Truncation and Wildcard

Truncation

* Truncation and wildcards broaden your search capabilities by allowing you to retrieve multiple spellings of a root word or word stem, such as singular and plural forms.

* Truncation is using a wildcard at the end of a root word to search multiple variations of that root word. Check a database's help section to identify what symbol is used for a wildcard.

* In this search example: protect* OR conserv* OR regulat* would retrieve multiple spellings of these synonyms.

* Some databases may allow you to use truncation at the beginning of words or within words (this is called internal truncation).

* Consult the help files in the database to determine the availability of this feature.

 

 

 

Example of Truncation

• Truncation expands the search to locate all words beginning with the same root.
• Example: teen* will return teen,teens,teenage,teenager,etc.

Phrase Searching

 

 

• Phrase searching is when you use a string of words (instead of a single word) to search with.
• By using phrase searching you will retrieve fewer results!
• You might be looking for information on information on information literacy.Each one of these words has a different meaning when standing alone and will retrieve many irrelevant documents,but when you put them together the meaning changes to the very precise concept of "information Literacy".
• For the database to understand your search,you should put your phrase between brackets ( ) or inverted commas " ".
• Type your search as follows:

"Information Literacy" or (information Literacy)

Thexample of phrase searchingis picture is one of the




Wildcard

* A wildcard is a special character, such as an asterisk (*),question mark (?),or pound sign (#), that replaces one or more letters in a word.

*A wildcard usually represents a single character.


*A wildcard is used in the middle of a word to match usually known variants of a term. Example:wom?n will return woman,women,and womyn