Need topic ideas?
A great idea can come from anywhere! Here are some suggested places to start:
- Class discussions
- Assigned readings
- Personal interests
- Trending topics
- Browse journals in the field
Developing a Topic
Before you develop your research topic or question, you'll need to do some background research first. This will help you:
- begin to understand the context of your topic
- narrow the topic to a more manageable size
- direct you to where to do more specific searches
Encyclopedia-style databases offer short overviews of a topic and are good places to start.
Try the library databases below to explore your topic. When you're ready, move on to refining your topic.
Find background information:
- Credo This link opens in a new windowCredo is an easy-to-use tool for starting research. Gather background information on your topic from hundreds of full-text encyclopedias, dictionaries, quotations, and subject-specific titles, as well as 500,000+ images and audio files and over 1,000 videos.
Encyclopedia of Human RelationshipsCall Number: REF. 302.03 En19re v.1-3ISBN: 1412958466Publication Date: 2009
Social Issues in America: An EncyclopediaCall Number: Electronic ResourceISBN: 0765680610Publication Date: 2015
Now that you've done some background research, it's time to narrow your topic. Remember: the shorter your final paper, the narrower your topic needs to be. Here are some suggestions for narrowing and defining your topic:
- Is there a specific subset of the topic you can focus on?
- Is there a cause and effect relationship you can explore?
- Is there an unanswered question on the subject?
- Can you focus on a specific time period or group of people?
Describe and develop your topic in some detail. Try filling in the blanks in the following sentence, as much as you can:
I want to research ____(what/who)____
and ____(what/who)____
in ____(where)____
during ____(when)____
because ____(why)____.