What is phrase searching?

Phrase searching is when you use a string of words (instead of a single word) to search with. Look at the following example:

You might be looking for information on teenage abortions. Each one of these words has a different meaning when standing alone and will retrieve many irrelevant documents, but when you put them together the meaning changes to the very precise concept of "teenage abortions". For the database to understand your search, you should put your phrase between brackets ( ) or inverted commas ". Type your search as follows:

"teenage abortions" or
(teenage abortions)

• Some databases will use the inverted commas and others the brackets. Look at the "Help" function of each database to see what you should use for that particular database.
• Not all databases allow phrase searching. Look at the "Help" function of the database to find out.

By using phrase searching you will retrieve fewer results.