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Search Makeover: Increasing the Relevancy of Your Results
- Why were my initial results too general?
- Although I found articles about the 1943 film Jane Eyre in Google Scholar, I am not satisfied.
- These results were very general.
- Professor Sheehan wants us to find articles relating to women and the genre of our film.
- I need to find material on:
- Jane Eyre
- and 1943 film
- and women or females (or the names of a particular character)
- Strategy A:
- Revise the search with these new key words"
- "Jane Eyre" and film and women and "female gothic"
- Be persistent in scrolling through new search results to find an article you like
- Click on the subject headings in this article to link to similar articles
- Strategy B:
- Execute a "Field Search."
- Change the drop-down menu to the right of the search terms to "Abstract." This will bring up articles with these terms in the abstract.
- This increases the relevancy of your search.
- Strategy C:
- Go to the Library!
- Run the search in the Library databases Modern Language Association Bibliography, Academic Search Premier.
Example: Search Makeover: "The Rocking Horse Winner"
- Added additional search terms.
- Notice that in Google Scholar, as in Google, we do not need to put the connecting term "AND" between key words.
- Notice, too, the use of quotation marks " " to keep phrases "Jane Eyre" and "female gothic" intact.
- Success: The results are more relevant!
