Boolean OR

"anorexia OR eating disorders"

Boolean OR between each term in the example above retrieves all documents containing EITHER of the terms as well as the documents where both are included. OR can be used to combine as many words as you like.

Examples:
  • "gangster OR gangsta"
  • "dogs OR cats"
  • "infants or baby?" (This search would pick up documents with baby, baby's, babies).

OR broadens a search.

Research Question:" How do images in the media cause eating disorders in women and teenage girls?"

Look for the concepts contained in the question and make a list of synonyms.

Concept Synonyms
1.
mass media
movies, television, magazines
2.
eating disorders
anorexia, bulimia
3.
girls
females, women
Use LILO's Keyword Search Builder to construct a search using the example terms above. Remove the sample search from the input boxes, and enter mass media and movies under concept 1, eating disorders and anorexia under concept 2, and girls and women under concept 3. Click "create search" and see how they are combined into a search string.

(Note: Although the Keyword Builder only shows three concepts, with two synonyms for each concept, you can create search queries with multiple concepts and synonyms.)

You can construct very thorough searches using Boolean operators.

For practice, select two terms from each concept above and enter them into the Keyword Search Builder. Press "Create Search," and paste the search string here: