Rhetoric 102: Writing about War

Before you begin searching in an online database, try to think of as many search terms as possible. Think of all the different aspects of your research question and try to generate multiple search terms for those aspects. Come up with synonyms and try the different terms in your search. NOTE: The list below contains suggested search terms, it is by no means a comprehensive list of potential search terms.

Potential Search Terms:

• The Yellow Birds
  • Kevin Powers
  • Powers, Kevin
  • "The Yellow Birds" (hint: putting words in quotation marks searches for the words as a phrase, and will narrow down your results)
  • Iraq War Portrayal
• Iraq War
  • The war in Iraq
  • Iraq War, 2003-2011
• Public Opinion
  • Public support
  • Public poll
  • Media poll
  • Media polling
• September 11 Terrorist Attacks
  • 9/11
  • 9/11 attacks
• PTSD
  • Post-traumatic stress disorder
• Veterans
  • Iraq War Veterans
• Iraqi People
  • Iraq population
  • Iraq health
  • Iraq reconstruction 
  • Iraq infrastructure
• Human cost of war

Try combining search terms for more specific results: "Iraq War AND Public Opinion"

Look for:

• Full Text: this will limit results to items that you can read right away through our subscriptions
• Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Articles: limits to scholarly articles

All databases should have filters (like those shown above) on the search results page that will help you narrow down - or expand - your search results.