A little about truncation and wildcards...
Truncation and wildcard symbols provide flexibility in searching. Do you want to search for variations of a word that contain the same root or stem? Would you like to perform a search for a word that could have spelling variations? You will learn how to use truncation and wildcard symbols to do both of these things!
A truncation search allows you to search for variations of a word that share the same stem at the same time. Truncation symbols vary by database, so be sure to consult the help section of the database you are using before conducting such a search. In Academic Search Complete, the truncation symbol is an asterisk (*). Here are some examples of truncation in use along with variations of the word that would be retrieved:
A search for the word challeng* will search for the following keywords: challenges, challenging, challenged
A wildcard search allows you to search for words that have variations in spelling (or when you are unsure of the spelling). Wildcard symbols also vary by database, so be sure to consult the help section of the database you are using before conducting such a search. In Academic Search Complete, the wildcard symbol is a question mark (?). Here are some examples of wildcards searches:
A search for the word wom?n will find woman, women.
Or perhaps we want to search for relevance, but can't remember if it is spelled "relevance" or "relevence" We can search for relev?nce and articles or records containing the word will be retrieved.
