Howto? Parameters and LIKE statement SQL

I am writing a searching function, and have thought up of this query using parameters to prevent, or at least limit, SQL injection attacks. However, when I run it through my program it does not return anything:

SELECT * FROM compliance_corner WHERE (body LIKE '%@query%') OR (title LIKE '%@query%')

Can parameters be used like this? or are they only valid in an instance such as:

SELECT * FROM compliance_corner WHERE body LIKE '%<string>%' (where <string> is the search object).

EDIT: I am constructing this function with VB.NET, does that have impact on the syntax you guys have contributed?

Also, I ran this statement in SQL Server: SELECT * FROM compliance_corner WHERE (body LIKE '%max%') OR (title LIKE%max%')` and that returns results.

Well, I'd go with:

 Dim cmd as New SqlCommand(
 "SELECT * FROM compliance_corner"_
  + " WHERE (body LIKE @query )"_ 
  + " OR (title LIKE @query)")

 cmd.Parameters.Add("@query", "%" +searchString +"%")

Your visual basic code would look something like this:

Dim cmd as New SqlCommand("SELECT * FROM compliance_corner WHERE (body LIKE '%' + @query + '%') OR (title LIKE '%' + @query + '%')")

cmd.Parameters.Add("@query", searchString)