1. Remember that computers cannot understand English, and research queries must be phrased in such a way that the computer can make sense of them. For example, typing something like, "What are some warning signs of a stroke?" will not work, whereas typing in "stroke AND symptoms" will be more effective in getting the results that you need).
   
2. Look at the database's "Help" menu. These menus often give insights into how to use such things as truncation marks, Boolean operators, and subject headings in order to make your searching more effective.
   
3. Learn to use truncation marks! These marks (sometimes a question mark (?) or something that looks like this *) help the computer locate more possible results. For example, if you are looking for an article about depression in adolescent patients, you might want to type in a search query like this: "depression AND (adolescent* OR teen*)". This allows the computer to find all results with the words adolescent, adolescents, teen, teens, and teenagers.

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