Since some words have many
different possible variations, it is nice to be able to conduct one search
that will search for all these possible variations. Truncation is a
symbol used at the end of the root form of a word to search for all possible
variant endings. Different databases use different truncation symbols.
Refer to the attached Database Comparison Chart to see the different
truncation symbols used by the databases MCC subscribes to. You can
print the chart for later reference. Remember to close the document to
return to the tutorial.
Database
Comparison Chart
Below is an example of truncation where the truncation symbol is a
question mark.
hero?
This will retrieve the words hero,
heroic, heroism, heroes, heroine, heroin, etc.
Using truncation can be useful for
"covering all your bases," but at the same time you may retrieve results
that are not relevant to your topic. As in the above example you might
get sources on the drug heroin.
Some databases will automatically
search for variant endings for the terms you enter making truncation
unnecessary.
