YSP

Break down your research question: We must break down research questions because databases cannot break down sentences. 

Example research question: How does the mineral composition of volcanic rock in Icelandic shield volcanoes differ from that of Hawaiian shield volcanoes?

1. Pick out the important word of your research question. These words provide the foundation of your search terms. 
   • Key Words and phrases: "mineral composition", "volcanic rock" volcanoes, "Icelandic shield", "Hawaiian shield"
2. How else can you say your keywords and phrases? Think of how you can become more broad and narrow for some search terms.
   • To narrow down "Hawaiian shield volcanoes," I can search for specific volcanoes in the shield, such as Mauna Loa, Mauna Kea, and Kohala.
   • "Volcanic rock" can be rephrased as lava, magma, basalt, pumice, rhyolite, etc. 
3. Connect your search terms using Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT)

Place quotation marks around your phrases to make sure that the search engine locates the complete phrase and not the individual words.

For example:

You will find information on all the people named "John" and all the people named "Smith."

However:

will only give you results for people named "John Smith."

An asterisk acts as any combination of letters that follow the preceding word.

For example:

It gives you all the words that start with writing!

This includes writing, writing, and writing.