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Boolean Searching Tips: Phrase searching

Searching tips and techniques for higher-level students. Advanced searching techniques to ensure retrieving all possible information.

Phrase searching tips

Most databases allow you to specify that adjacent words be searched as phrases.

Using parentheses or quotes around search words is a common way to do phrase searching, but not all databases or search engines use them.

Example:  "Nuclear engineering"

You can click a button specifying that you want your words searched as a phrase, as in the example below: