Check Your Spelling
If you're not getting many results, double check to make sure you spelled everything correctly. Northwestern Search looks for exact matches to each word you entered.
Identify Phrases with Quotations
A search for Math Department will return all pages with the words Department and Math somewhere in the text. Surrounding the text in quotes ("Math Department") will return pages with those two words found side by side.
Capitalize Proper Names
Capitalizing proper names will cause Northwestern Search to do a case-sensitve match. For example, the word "long" could be found in reference to measurement, however searching for Northwestern Alum Shelley Long will limit results to instances where "long" is capitalized.
Exclude Words that Dilute Results
Keep words out of your results by adding minus ("-") before the word. Do not add a space between the minus and the word.
For example, if you want to search for bass fish but don't want it confused with bass guitar, you could try: bass -guitar.
Require Descriptive Words
Require certain words come up in results by placing a plus ("+") before the word. Do not add a space between the plus and the word.
For example, if you want to find the syllabus for your calculus class but don't want to see all online syllabi, you could try: +calculus syllabus.
Use Combinations of the Above Techniques
A search query can contain several combinations of the above. For example, to find Northwestern Alum Shelly Long, you may want to search for her name as a phrase, require the word "actress" and exclude the word "measurement."