Use an asterisk ( * ) to truncate words. For example, japan* will search japan, japanese, etc. and theat* will search for theatre, theater, theatres, theatrical, etc.
Use OR to search for variations on a word, such as theatre OR drama
Try a SUBJECT search to find resources about that subject
Scholarly articles are written by experts in the field and, additionally, reviewed by a panel experts in the field. They tend to include a lot of research and data, and the information in the article is backed up by a list of references.
Popular articles are often written by journalists for a general audience and are not reviewed by experts in the field. Popular articles rarely include references.