YSP

Break down your research question: We have to 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 those in the 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 phases? Think of how you can become more broad and more narrow for some of your search terms.
   • To make "Hawaiian shield volcanoes" more narrow I can search for specific volcanoes in the shield such as Mauna Loa, Mauna Kea, and Kohala.
   • "Volcanic rock" can be rephrases as lava, magma, basalt, pumice, rhyolite, ect. 
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:

will find information on all people named "John," and all 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:

Gives you all words that start with writ!

This includes: write, writing, and written.