The search results page contains a lot of information, let's break that down.

Don't worry it will all make sense! There are three columns

Features of the search results page have been numbered to better describe what each bit means

1. The search box itself
2. The advanced search options
3. The total number of results for the search query
4. Sort and limiting options (see below)
5. Tick box to select all results on the page (to use with 8 below)
6. Tick box to select specific results (to use with 8 below)
7. Article details
8. Actions you can take with selected item:
   • Create a citation record for the item to include in your reference list
   • Send the item by email
   • Send the item by email
   • Save the item to My Research
   • All save options (including print item and export to referencing software)
9. Article preview showing keywords from your search.
10. Save search and create email alert

Sorting

There are three ways of sorting results:

Best Match (Relevance)

By select "Best Match", NewsBank uses an algorithm (a set of instructions for solving a problem or accomplishing a task) to determine what it thinks are the most relevant results to your search query, so for example if you search for 'healthy eating' (that is healthy and eating), the algorithm is likely to show articles that have the phrase "healthy eating" in the title, abstract or list of keywords, because it "thinks" that these will be most relevant to your search. It's up to you to decide that, however.

Limiters

if you get too many results, the limiters in the left-hand column are a good way of reducing the numbers of results to a more manageable level. You can limit by:

Date Selector

You can enter a date range to narrow your search by publication date or you can click on one of the columns to see results from a particular decade

Source Name

You can search for items within a particular publication (for example, The Irish Times). Click on More Options to see a list of titles relevant to your search.

Click on a title to limit results to that individual title. Click on More > to see more titles

Source Type

You can limit by the type of source. 

Click on a source type to limit your results to show only that document type. Click on "More Options" to see other source types.

Lexile (Readability)

You can limit by the reading level. NewsBank uses Lexile, which is a measurement tool for reading level. The lower the level, the easier the articles are to read.