Getting Started with Pre-Research
Welcome
Are you feeling lost on your paper or assignment topic? Do you need help choosing a "Just Right" topic? This guide is designed to help you pick a topic and narrow it down to fit the assignment parameters.
Check out this slideshow:
- Choosing a "Just Right" Topic Slideshow
This slideshow goes over much of the material in this guide, including extra examples on how to narrow down a topic.
What Makes a Good Topic?
Picking your topic can be overwhelming! Consider it just part of the research process. Just because you pick a topic doesn't mean it won't change or evolve as you research and write.
A good topic:
- Interests or impacts you
- Is familiar to you through coursework or personally - you have some existing knowledge
- Is broad enough to have multiple sources of information
- Is specific enough to be manageable in the page requirements of your paper
- Might be instructor approved
Finding Your Angle or Perspective
A research assignment needs more than just a topic. Research is problem-solving with information. It is more than a simple report of what is already known.
As you brainstorm a topic, you will probably find something within that topic to investigate. This is called an angle. The angle is a smaller, more specific element within the larger topic. The angles is what you will investigate with the context of the larger topic.
Once you have an angle, create a question about what you want to investigate. This research question shapes and guides your search for sources and ultimately your paper.
- Assignment: What does it require? Are there specific criteria to meet, such as informative, argumentative, or problem/solution?
- Topic: Brainstorm possible topics that fit the assignment. Consider topics you are interested in and care about
- Angle: What smaller part of the topic can you focus on? Within this big topic, what are you most curious about? (Procon.org can be a good source for thinking about angles).
- Question: Ask a question about your angle. Conduct research to find a potential answer to your question.
The process flow is illustrated in these images.
Tools for Research
- Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Covers every major subject, from art to medicine, psychology to history, and technology to literature. The award-winning titles in Credo Reference include general and subject encyclopedias, dictionaries, biographies, bibliographies, chronologies, handbooks, atlases, and more. Credo's collections are continuously updated to reflect the most relevant, up-to-date content.
- SIRS Issues Researcher This link opens in a new window
This link opens in a new window
Offers analysis and opinions covering the pros, cons, and everything in between for 325 social, scientific, health, historic, economic, political, and global issues. Editorially created Topic Overview pages with engaging Essential Questions with answers, and viewpoint articles help build solid foundations for understanding the issues. Articles and graphics in SIRS Issues Researcher are carefully selected according to strict SIRS criteria for content reliability, relevance, and age-appropriateness.
*This is a Traveler resource. The Traveler Statewide Resource project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. - Opposing Viewpoints (Gale in Context) This link opens in a new window
The premier online resource covering today’s hottest social issues, from offshore drilling to climate change, healthcare to immigration. Opposing Viewpoints in Context helps students research, analyze and organize a broad variety of data for conducting research, completing writing assignments, preparing for debates, creating presentations and more.
Post-Research Checkpoint:
Pretend that you are researching for an argumentative paper. After you do your initial research using your topic, write down a question about your topic. Once you have a question, research the topic again. Ask yourself:
- Are there enough results?
- Are the results “good sources”?
- Are there too many?
- Do you need to change your search terms or keywords & try again?
- Do you need to change or refine your question?
Brainstorming for Your Topic
Brainstorming can be useful to help pick the "just right" topic for your assignment.
Some ways to brainstorm include asking yourself questions, free writing, and mind mapping.
While it is not strictly necessary to do all three of these forms when beginning your assignment, it can be very useful to do some form of brainstorming in order to get your ideas flowing.
If you would like to create your own virtual mind map, consider using Bubble or Google Jamboard. (You will need to make an account to use either of these. Jamboard can be used with your Google e-mail sign in.)
Tutorials
- Choosing a Topic Tutorial from CredoThis tutorial will illustrate how to:
Narrow down your topic to a more manageable size.
Craft a research question from your topic. - How to Narrow Down Your Topic from CredoThis video explains how to choose and narrow a topic into an appropriate research question and how to explore your topic through strategic searching.