 I like to look at searching in terms of developing the vocabulary of your research area. When you start researching, your vocabulary is very limited. As you start finding articles or books, more words become available to you that will help you find more resources. For example, take the hypothetical thesis statement of what is the effect of class size on student achievement in K-6. I will look at that statement and literally write it at the top of my piece of paper or word document. Then underline the key concepts so in this case, the research would underline class size, student achievement in K-6. Next, think of those concepts as the circles of a Venn diagram. You as the researcher want to find the articles that touch on all three topics. You want the articles where all three circles connect. Oftentimes, a database like articles plus will allow you to have multiple search boxes at the same time. So you could use one box for class size, one for student achievement and one for the grade level. This is where developing your vocabulary enters the picture. As you look at the results of this search, you will begin to see that the terms you are searching will occasionally be called something else. For example, class size can be referred to as small classes or teacher-student ratio. Student achievement could be referred to in any number of ways such as test scores or mathematical achievement. K-6 could be each grade individually or referred to as elementary or even middle school or junior high depending on the author of the article. As you find these additional terms, write them down on the piece of paper under the thesis statement. Now that you have begun to create a vocabulary, you can broaden your search to include more articles and items in your results list. In databases like articles plus, once you conduct a search, you are able to do things like limit by date, select the type of resource you are interested in, or follow the database provided subject terms to find additional items on the same topic. Articles plus also allows you to email citations and full text items if available to yourself.