How do you use truncation and wildcards to expand your search terms?

2 What is a wildcard?

A wildcard is a technique that allows you to replace one or more letters within a word with a symbol. For example, if you use a question mark (?) as a wildcard, you can search for wom?n and get results that include both woman and women. The question mark (?) is the most common wildcard symbol, but some databases and search engines may use other symbols, such as a pound sign (#) or a percent sign (%). You can usually find the specific symbol for each source in the help section or the advanced search options. Wildcards can help you deal with spelling variations, abbreviations, and different forms of a word.

3 How to use truncation and wildcards effectively?

To use truncation and wildcards effectively, it is important to choose the right word stem or root for truncation. For instance, using an asterisk to truncate the word environment will yield results that include environmental, environmentalist, and environmentalism. However, if you truncate the word environ with an asterisk, you will also get results that include envelope, envious, and envision. It is also wise to use truncation and wildcards sparingly and strategically. Too many symbols in your search may lead to too many irrelevant results. To narrow down your search and retrieve more relevant results, it is recommended to combine truncation and wildcards with other search techniques such as Boolean operators, quotation marks, and parentheses.

4 What are some common pitfalls to avoid?

Truncation and wildcards can be useful tools for expanding your search terms, however, if not used with caution, they can cause some issues. It is important to be aware of the different meanings and connotations of a word stem or root. Additionally, you should be aware of the different symbols and rules for each database and search engine. Furthermore, errors or inconsistencies in data or records should also be taken into consideration. For instance, typos, misspellings, or different versions of a word or phrase may exist in the data or records. If you use truncation or wildcards, some results that don't match your search terms exactly may be missed. Therefore, it is best to check the help section or the advanced search options of each source before using truncation or wildcards.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?