Quotation Marks: " "
Quotation marks are used when you want to search for a specific phrase:
"reasonable person"
"strict liability"
Backslash Number: /N
Use a backslash and a number when you want your words to be placed within a specific distance in a sentence.
House /1 Fire (house within one word of fire)
Backslash S: /S
Use a backslash and a S when you want your words to be within the same sentence.
House /s Fire (house within the same sentence as fire)
Backslash P: /P
Use a backslash and a P when you want your words to be within the same paragraph.
House /p Fire (house within the same paragraph as fire).
Wildcard symbols: Asterisks and Exclamation Points
Wildcard symbols are timesavers that can help you tailor your search without having to type out all forms of a word. Wildcard symbols vary by databases, so be sure to check the database's search instructions before beginning your search.
An asterisk can be used to replace a single letter in a word to broaden your results.
Wom*n: (results will include both woman and women)
An exclamation point can be used to retrieve variations of a word. Please note that the exclamation point works best when the root word is unique in its shortened form.
Recycl! (results will include "recycle," "recycling" and "recyclable").