Searching for Information Using Boolean Operators

Sample Search

Research Question: Is multicultural education helpful?

Key concepts: Is multicultural education helpful?

advantageousvaluableeffectivehelpful

traininginstructioneducation

multilingualmulti-ethnicmulticulturalSynonymKeyword

Conduct the following searches:

# results:2 Keywords + “and” search:

51,600 multi-ethnic and education and advantageous616,000 multilingual and education and valuable

1,830,000 multicultural and education and effective# results:3 keywords + “and” search

1,650,000 multi-ethnic and education2,140,000 multilingual and education3,790,000 multicultural and education

347,000,000 helpful631,000,000 education19,900,000 multicultural

# results:Keyword search:

Conduct the following searches:

# resultsKeywords + “and not” search:1,840,000 (multicultural and education) not training

51,000 (multi-ethnic and instruction) not multilingual1,550,000 (multilingual and education) not training

# results:2 Keywords + “or” search:

1,980,000 multicultural or education or training45,000,000 education or instruction or training

77,300 multicultural or multilingual or multi-ethnic# results:3 keywords + “or” search

141,000 multi-ethnic or multilingual647,000 multi-ethnic or multicultural

1,040,000 multicultural or multilingual