COM 231 - Public Speaking: Find Articles

Search for articles on your topic in one of the following online databases. If your topic is complex, you may want to look at various aspects of communications, so consider searching subject specific databases, e.g. communications in nursing, etc.

Using search tools such as quotation marks and Boolean operators can enhance and clarify the results that appear when you do a search.

• Quotation marks help to narrow down search results by looking for articles that contain that specific phrase. If you were to search for the phrase dog house without the quotation marks in Summon, you would be met with 161,135 results! Putting quotation marks around that same phrase cuts down the amount of results significantly, with only 7,296 results appearing in your search.
• Boolean operators are phrases such as "and," "or," and "not." Using these phrases help to clarify your search and include everything you're researching. If you search "dog house" AND "pet" yields 1,125 results, giving you results with both of these phrases included.