I'm brand new to .net MVC, and while I have some basic experience with writing SQL queries, I'm not sure how to go about what I need to do for .NET.

My initial query looks like this:

var results = (from s in db.Members 
               join sa in db.FocusArea on s.ID equals sa.MemberID 
               where sa.Area == SearchString 
               select new { s.ID, s.Name, s.Overview }).ToList();

This is not functioning correctly. It is seaching in the s.Overview for some reason. And, I need to make this query much more complicated. In short, I have three tables I need to search across. And with this query, it is not working:

var conceptResults = (from s in db.Cohorts 
                      join oa in db.OutcomeArea on s.ID equals oa.CohortID 
                      where ((oa.Area.Contains(SearchString)) 
                         || (oa.OutcomeType.Contains(SearchString))) 
                      select new { s.ID, s.Name, s.Overview }).ToList();

1. I need to use my SearchString to search for matches in both Area and Description in db.FocusArea.
2. I also need to use my SearchString to search for matches (contains) in another table db.SpecificFocusAreas for column SFocusArea where again the join is the ID/MemberID.

Is there a way to essentially do a join or join type of statement? I don't want to join all three tables because I am looking for results from either of the two joins, not from all joins.