Skip to Main Content

ENGL C1000- Fall 2025: Prof. Sonrode: Research Basics

Research Basics-Getting Started

Research basics for Professor Sonrode's English C1000 Class. This video covers topics, resources, brainstorming, and Boolean operators and gets you ready for searching the library databases.

Boolean Operators/Combination Searching

We use Boolean Operators to construct our search inquiries in library databases to find articles. I have the 3 major operators listed below with examples. Remember to keep your search terms simple to keywords that relate to your subject of your research.

Quotation Marks: To search multiple worded search terms together.
       "Monterey Peninsula College" 
       "social media" 
       "death penalty"

AND: To tell the database that these search terms must appear in your results and to help you narrow your search.
       "social media" AND students
       "death penalty" AND  racism
       Facebook AND anxiety AND teens

OR: When you want to search for either term and help expand your search.
       "social media" OR Facebook
       California AND ("death penalty" OR "capital punishment")