When researching a question, don't use complete sentences. Instead, use the most important keywords! For example:
How are mobile devices affecting education?
The most important keywords are:
mobile devices AND education
Use Boolean operators to modify your search. This is very useful when you are searching for journal articles!
Boolean Operators
AND OR NOT
AND will narrow your search results:
"global warming" AND glaciers
OR will expand your search results:
"mobile devices" OR smartphones
NOT will exclude certain results:
cowboys NOT football
Use quotation marks to search for an exact phrase. This will help you find more specific results! For example:
social media = 8221 results
"social media" = 1140 results
Use an asterisk (*) after a set of letters to perform a truncated search. This will find variations of a word. For example:
musc*
will find results containing the words...
muscle, muscular, musculoskeletal, etc.