ContinueDefining Your Research Topic & Starting
Your Search
Lesson 3
Designing a Strategy to Locate Information
Choosing a topic
Often the hardest part of writing a research paper is selecting the right topic. A good topic should sustain your interest over the time that it will take to do your research and write your paper. It should be meaningful to you personally, raise questions that have no simple answers, and provide you with an opportunity to expand your knowledge through critical assessment of various points of view.
Determining if your topic is too broad or too narrow
No matter what topic you choose, it must have a focus. Many topics are too broad or too loosely defined at first. Decide which aspect of a topic interests you most and identify the keywords used to describe your topic before you start to look for background information.
Most research topics can be approached from different angles. For example, if you were writing a paper on animal rights you would probably want to focus your paper on a specific aspect of animal rights. The aspect you choose will lead you to different sources. For instance, focusing on the moral and ethical issues raised by large corporate farms would take you in a different direction than if you chose to write about the ethical use of animals in medical research. And if you chose to write about the use of animals in religion, you would look in completely different places for the information.
Thinking of terminology that you can use in locating information on your topic
To help you narrow your topic, look for your keywords or headings in the indexes of encyclopedias, in periodical indexes, and in the table of contents of books covering your topic. All of these sources can provide you with terms that will aid you in your search.
State your topic as a question
Often it is helpful to state your topic in the form of a question and then isolate the key ideas or concepts. For example, instead of saying that you want to do a paper on "genetics," pose the topic in the form of a specific question: "What are the scientific and ethical issues of reproduction research, specifically those related to cloning?" Or, "Is research into the idea of splitting off cells from embryos to clone human beings ethically acceptable?" The keywords contained in these statements will then form the basis for search terms you can use in the online catalog or appropriate periodical indexes. Other questions to ask yourself include the following:
Determine the particular aspect of a topic that interests you
Most topics can be examined from different angles. To be successful in looking for information you need to know what aspect of a topic you are looking for. Do you want to know about the ethical, the social, the political, or the religious aspect of the topic? The particular aspect of the topic that you choose will affect how you search for the information. For example, you would use very different resources to look for information on abortion from a religious or ethical point of view than you would to look for information on abortion from a medical or health point of view.
Finding background information
Encyclopedias, dictionaries, and textbooks can all provide you with a helpful overview of a particular subject, and frequently you will find a useful bibliography at the end of the article, entry, or chapter. The bibliography will lead you to other books and articles that will be helpful to you in doing your research. Bibliographies are one of a researchers best friends.