RELIGIOUS STUDIES 377

Researching, Writing, and Thinking about Religion


UNIT 1
UNIT 2
UNIT 3
UNIT 4
UNIT DESCRIPTION
SELECTING YOUR SOURCES
WHAT ARE DATABASES?
ADVANCED KEYWORD SEARCHING
REFINING YOUR KEYWORD SEARCH
NATURAL LANGUAGE SEARCHING
SEARCH LIMITS
EVALUATING YOUR SOURCES
REFERENCE LIST


NATURAL LANGUAGE SEARCHING




What is Natural Language Searching?

Some search engines such as Webcrawler (http://www.webcrawler.com) will allow you to perform what is called a natural language search. In natural language searching, you type your question in directly as you would pose it to another person and the system then interprets it for you. In these cases, the system is often applying the same methods you have been learning but without you seeing them or having to figure it out yourself. The system, however, does not always interpret your question the way you hope. It is generally best to learn search techniques yourself!

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