A First Search in OneSearch
1. & 2. Your first search might begin with just the core concepts of your idea. Be sure to separate these core concepts into separate search boxes.
Bonus tip: apply an asterisk (shift-8 on a US keyboard) to the end of a word that changes its ending, i.e. "gentrify, gentrification, gentrified...". When you search "gentrif*", the asterisk indicates to the computer that it should fill any ending on to the end. Note, this function can work against you; for example if you search "wom*", the computer returns"wombat" as easily as "woman".
3. Click "Search" to run your search
4. Nearly 3,000 results! We will work on narrowing this down by using filtering features and by introducing another concept to refine the idea.
An End-Result Search in OneSearch
1. Use the field tags available from the drop-down menu to give the search engine some context to the importance of the word. This will reduce the number of results from the first search, but also ensure high relevance of the remaining articles. Here, I have selected the "SU Subject Terms" field tag to indicate I want the search engine to only find articles where this term is tagged as a subject term.
2. Separating the core concepts into their own search boxes allows me to add synonyms. This will increase the number of results, while field tags are maintaining overall relevance.
3. Throughout the searches, I've noticed even with two concepts this idea is far too large to write an essay on. What additional concept could refine your idea to a workable essay assignment? Here, I've selected "green space", and added it to a third search box, so that I can apply a field tag or add synonyms.
