Overview
Using quotes around a phrase will narrow the search to look for that specific phrase. Often times, a phrase will have many words connected to mean something. For example, the popular phrase “Better late than never” has multiple parts to it. By placing it in quotes it searches for those words together.
Searching for the "Gary Plan" in IUCAT
Another local example of phrase searching includes William Wirt’s Gary Plan (aka the Work-Study-Play system). Wirt, a longtime Gary, Indiana resident and educational pioneer, came up with a progressive educational system that organized curriculum into pragmatic subjects related to occupations or daily life. This was called the Gary Plan (or the Work-Study-Play system).
If you search for a specific phrase, like the Gary Plan, place it in quotes to narrow to specific and relevant results.
Example 1:
Searching; Gary Plan
Without quotes in IUCAT yields 1.5 million results
Example 2:
Searching; "Gary Plan"
With quotes, yields 593 results
Example 3:
Of course, you can continue to limit your results from here by combining terms. For example: "Gary Plan" AND William Wirt
