Refining
Search Results
Specificity
If
you retrieve an enormous number of documents and they are not
relevant to your search, try the following strategies to make
your search more specific.
The
more keywords you enter the more precise your search results,
so add words to your search string.
Substitute specific words for more general ones.
diner1 |
instead
of |
restaurant |
waltzing |
instead
of |
dancing
|
"Honda
Civic Accord" |
instead
of |
Honda |
Use
distinctive or technical words or terms in your search
string if at all possible.
Searching
Within Results
Some
search engines allow users to search within a list of
results. Look for a "search within results" button
and enter more terms. Alta Vista offers a set of related
terms above the results list. Users can search for
one of the related terms suggested within
the pages they have already retrieved and in this way
hone in on precisely the information desired.
Boolean
Searching AND/OR.
Boolean NOT/Truncation . Phrase
Searching/Capitalization . Field
Searching.
Domain Restriction.
Advanced Searching .
Refining a Search
