To optimize your search using symbols, start by using quotation marks ("...") to find exact phrases like "climate change adaptation". Use the minus sign (-) to exclude terms, e.g., Africa development -Egypt, and the asterisk (*) as a wildcard to find word variations like educat* (education, educate). The question mark (?) can substitute a single character, useful for spelling variants such as organis?ation. Combine keywords using Boolean operators in ALL CAPS — AND (narrows results), OR (broadens results), and NOT (excludes terms), and use parentheses ( ) to group terms logically, e.g., (poverty OR unemployment) AND Africa. On Google, use site: to search within specific websites (e.g., climate policy site:un.org) and filetype: to find document types like PDFs (digital libraries filetype:pdf). These techniques can significantly improve the relevance and precision of your academic or professional searches.