Since this chapter is all about determining and expressing your information need, let's follow up on thinking about that with a practical exercise. Follow these steps to get a better grasp of exactly what you are trying to find out, and to identify some initial search terms to get you started. 1. Whatever project you are currently working on, there should be some question you are trying to answer. Write your current version of that question here. 2. Now write your proposed answer to your question. This may be the first draft of your thesis statement which you will attempt to support with your research, or in some cases, the first draft of a hypothesis that you will go on to test experi- mentally. It doesn't have to be perfect at this point, but based on your current understanding of your topic and what you expect or hope to find is the answer to the question you asked. 3. Look at your question and your thesis/hypothesis, and make a list of the terms common to both lists (excluding "the", "and", "a", etc.). These common terms are likely the important concepts that you will need to research to support your thesis/hypothesis. They may be the most useful search terms overall or they may only be a starting point. 2 Since this chapter is all about determining and expressing your information need, let's follow up on thinking about that with a practical exercise. Follow these steps to get a better grasp of exactly what you are trying to find out, and to identify some initial search terms to get you started. 1. Whatever project you are currently working on, there should be some question you are trying to answer. Write your current version of that question here. 2. Now write your proposed answer to your question. This may be the first draft of your thesis statement which you will attempt to support with your research, or in some cases, the first draft of a hypothesis that you will go on to test experi- mentally. It doesn't have to be perfect at this point, but based on your current understanding of your topic and what you expect or hope to find is the answer to the question you asked. 3. Look at your question and your thesis/hypothesis, and make a list of the terms common to both lists (excluding "the", "and", "a", etc.). These common terms are likely the important concepts that you will need to research to support your thesis/hypothesis. They may be the most useful search terms overall or they may only be a starting point. 2