In this paper, you choose the topic you want to research. Choosing a topic that is specific enough to be manageable without being too narrow can be difficult, but these steps can help.
Tip 1: Pick something you are interested in. If you are already interested in and curious about your topic, your research will be more enjoyable and will hold your attention easily.
For example, I'm interested in gaming (as in video and computer) and possible benefits to those who play videogames. In this case, my beginning research question could simply be what are the benefits of videogames.
If you can't think of a topic you want to research right away, try browsing in the databases listed to the right in the box "Using databases to help find a topic." The advantage is that you can read an overview of the topics right away.
Tip 2: Once you've identified a broad topic, try doing a quick search in a database to see what kind of research is out there right now. You can do a simple search and see what articles have been written about your topic. In other words, you're reviewing the current literature to see what's available. This can lead to step 2 of this process, Developing a Research Question. Some great places to start searching your broad topic are:
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Once you've identified your topic and you've done a quick search to see what research articles are out there, you may need to narrow your topic. You can do see by looking for reoccurring themes, words or topics that appear in your article list.
In our video game benefits example, I might find articles about socialization, cooperative play, literacy, etc. I can take a look at some articles and try to narrow and focus my topic by adding a word or words that interest me enough to go deeper to my article search. I add the word educational before benefits in my search because I want to be more specific about the kind of benefits one can derive from video games.
At this point, I can re-state my topic in the form of a research question. Asking whether the information you find directly answers your research question or not can help you find the most relevant information for your topic and quickly exclude resources that aren't helpful.
A sample research statement/question might be:
What are the educational benefits of playing video games?
Some of the library databases can help you find and choose a topic.
These databases will often present articles, videos and other information all in one place under 1 subject.
Rather than knowing a topic and then searching for information about it, these databases present the topics to you and then give you all the information about that topic.
Focuses on broad issues, such as war, genocide, terrorism, human rights, poverty, famine, globalization, world trade, nuclear proliferation, and global warming, as well as more specific events and topics in the news.
Offers authoritative content on emerging green technologies and issues on the environment and sustainability. Includes international newspapers, magazines, referred journals, videos, podcasts, images, and searchable case studies.
Covers social issues and includes pro and con viewpoint articles, reference articles, full-text magazines, academic journals, newspapers, primary source documents, government and organizational statistics, multimedia, and links to pertinent websites.