UGS 303: Rethinking the Founding - Sparrow

Searching databases is different than searching Google. Distil what you're looking for into a few key terms or phrases, rather than whole sentences. 

1. Write down your topic and underline the main concepts (ex. What was the treatment of Native Americans under the government of Colonial America?)
2. For each main concept, brainstorm a few synonyms and related terms (broader or narrower) that get at that concept:

   • Key Concepts	Native Americans	Government	Colonial America
     Related Terms	​Indians Indigenous Americans	Policy Politics	Colonial Period  Colon* 1600-1775

3. Combine key terms using AND and OR:​​
   • ​AND narrows your search by looking for articles with all of the words (your two or three key concepts should be connected with AND, because you need all of them represented in useful articles). 
   • OR broadens your search by looking for articles with any of the words (synonyms and related terms should be separated by OR - they get at the same key concepts, so any of them are useful).
4. Try different combinations of your keywords to get better results as you search:

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