You can also combine AND and OR in the same search. If we wanted to find information about women and Islam or Muslim women with one search statement, we could combine AND and OR this way:
women and (islam or muslim)
This search tells the computer: "show me stuff about women that contains either the word Islam or the word Muslim."
Notice the parentheses in the search statement above. When you combine two different search connectors in a single search statement, you need to separate the terms connected by "OR" from the rest of the search statement using parentheses.
Find out why or take our word for it and move on
Without parentheses, the computer may process the parts of your search in the wrong order, giving you unintended results.
It's just like arithmetic. Consider this equation:
5-3+2
5-3+2
(5-3)+2
5-(3+2)
2+2=4
5-5=0
Your result is quite different depending on which part of the equation you solve first.
Compare this to a search statement.
muslim or islam and women
(muslim or islam) and women
muslim or (islam and women)
You want to make sure that the computer gives you information about either "muslim women" or "women and islam", NOT "women and islam" and whatever else there is about muslims in general. Use parentheses to make sure the computer understands what you're trying to do.
