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Theater Research

all things theater, drama, performing arts

Tips for Finding Articles

Top 5 Tips for Finding Research Articles 

  1. Break up your search into its smallest parts. Ex: instead of searching for "gender differences in classroom communication" search for classroom AND communication AND gender   
  2. Think about other ways that an author might describe your topic. Articles gender differences in any type of communication might also use: (women OR gender OR girls OR men OR boys) 
  3. Not sure what search terms to use? Look for information about your article in the background resources listed on this page, or check for your topic on Google or Wikipedia. These are all good sources for keywords to use. 
  4. Too many articles leaving you overwhelmed? Add more search terms. The more words in your search, the fewer results you should see, since they will have to include ALL of those words 
  5. If you're not finding what you need, contact me. I'd love to talk with you about your research topic and figure out how we can tweak your search to be more useufl. 

For example:  

  1. Using AND and OR in Searches
    1. Shakespeare AND Symbolism
    2. Shakespeare AND (symbolism OR metaphors)
    3. Shakespear* AND (symbol* OR metaphor*)
    4. Shakespeare AND (film* OR cinema OR motion picture*)
  2. Phrase Searching
    1. Shakespeare and "All's Well That Ends Well" (so search will not break apart phrase)
    2. "Christopher Durang" and humor
  3. Word Roots
    1. Shakespear* = shakespearean, shakespeare's, shakespeares'
    2. Symbol* = symbolism, symbolic, symbolize
  4. Search Limiters
    1. Ways to limit your search (for example, in ArticlesPlus)
      1. full text, scholarly, subject, date range