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Todd Gilman
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Introduction   |   Library Home Page   |   Finding Books   |   Finding Journal Articles
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Using the Oxford English Dictionary

Quotations: by Author

Searching for quotations from a specified work
Searching for quotations by a specified author
Searching for quotations by date
Strategy for finding abbreviated work titles
Combining searches using Boolean operators: Matching terms in the same section of an entry

Quotations by Benjamin Franklin
Open the Full Text search panel by clicking Simple Search.

Type "franklin" into the input box.

Click on the list box (marked full text by default) and choose quotation author as your text area. This confines your search to author names in quotation text.

Click Start Search.

The results list for Second Edition entries is displayed.

This list contains a number of authors with the name Franklin.

To narrow down the list of results, repeat your search using the search string B. Franklin. Most authors in the OED are represented by their surname, or by their surname plus initial(s), but some have other shortened forms of their name (e.g. Shakes. for Shakespeare). The use of wildcards can help when you are uncertain what to enter and to ensure that you find variant citation styles.

To go to the top of any entry, click its name (in the left-hand column). To go to the first match in any entry, click the matching term (in the right-hand column).

If you are searching for joint authors (e.g. Beaumont and Fletcher), do an Advanced search of Quotations, using two search terms connected by a Boolean operator.

To go to the top of any entry, click its name (in the left-hand column). To go to the first match in any entry, click the matching term (in the right-hand column).