Search Tips

Doing a search on the Social Work Web Portal is easy. Simply type one or more search terms (the words or phrase that best describe the information you want to find) into the search box and hit the 'Enter' key or click on the Go button.

In response, the Social Work Web Portal produces a results page: a list of web pages related to your search terms, with the most relevant page appearing first, then the next, and so on.

Here are some basic tips to help you maximize the effectiveness of your search:

Choosing search terms

Choosing the right search terms is the key to finding the information you need.

Start with the obvious – if you're looking for general information on adoption, try adoption .

But it's often advisable to use multiple search terms; if you're looking for information on adoption of eastern european children, you'll do better with adoption children than with either adoption or children by themselves. And adoption children european may produce even better (or, depending on your perspective, worse) results.

You might also ask yourself if your search terms are sufficiently specific. It's better to search on second career social work than on social work as a new career . But choose your search terms carefully; the search engine looks for the search terms you chose, so congress social work bill will probably deliver better results than congress to pass bill relevant to social work.

Capitalization

This search engine is NOT case sensitive. All letters, regardless of how you type them, will be understood as lower case. For example, searches for HIPPA Security Rule, hippa security rule , and HipPA seCuRiTY rulE will all return the same results.

Automatic "and" queries

By default, the Social Work Web Portal only returns pages that include all of your search terms. There is no need to include "and" between terms. Keep in mind that the order in which the terms are typed will affect the search results. To restrict a search further, just include more terms. For example, to study on inclusion in the workforce, simply type study inclusion workforce.

Phrase searches

Sometimes you'll only want results that include an exact phrase. In this case, simply put quotation marks around your search terms.

Phrase searches are particularly effective if you're searching for proper names ("George Washington"), books ("Social Work 101 "), or famous quotes ("This was their finest hour").

Negative terms

If your search term has more than one meaning (bass, for example, could refer to fishing or music) you can focus your search by putting a minus sign ("-") in front of words related to the meaning you want to avoid.

For example, here's how you'd find pages about bass-heavy lakes, but not bass-heavy music:

Note: when you include a negative term in your search, be sure to include a space before the minus sign.

Domain search

You can use the Social Work Web Portal to search only within one specific website by entering the search terms you're looking for, followed by the word "site" and a colon followed by the domain name.

For example, here's how you'd find admission information on the University of Michigan School of Social Work site: