General Education

Library research video

When searching think of synonyms. Useful terms to try with your search include: policy, debate, controversy, statistics, research, effects, opinion, issues, cost, loss, ... Also, try quotes around phrases such as "high school" and use parentheses to group related terms: (policy or debate).

Search examples:

maid debate
maid canada issues
maid (debate or research or policy or issues)
"medical assistance in dying" ethics

"charter schools" alberta debate
"notwithstanding clause" alberta issues
"universal child care" policy benefits
"safe consumption" (debate or funding or issues)

funding "private schools" alberta
"private schools" (debate or issues) alberta

TIPS to TRY:

• Change the date range of your results to the last 5 or 10 years.
• sort results by Relevance if the default is by date.
• "Save as a PDF" and place in your Google drive; or e-mail document to yourself.
• Look for a link to "Cite" the article. Change to MLA 9th.
• Save to your Google Drive through the All Options link.
• if you want to save the URL do not save the one at the top of the page. Look for the "permanent link" either to the left or at the end of the article. 
• An asterisk * finds words that start with the same letters (canad* will find canada, canadians, etc)
• AND is automatically placed between words
• Use parentheses to group related items: (facebook or twitter)
• Use quotes around phrases: "online dating"
• the last three tips also work on Google News. 

Useful databases:

The above search tips will also work on Google News and Google Scholar. Google Scholar provides searching of scholarly literature across many disciplines and sources. To set up off-campus click the Menu icon (three bars)--> Settings --> Library links and add Mount Royal University.

Citation Resources at MRU

Student Learning Services