Your Research Topic
You may be assigned a research topic by your professor or you may be able to choose your research topic.
Helpful tips for a successful research topic!
1. If you can choose your own topic, choose one that interests you.
It might be tempting to go with what you think would be an "easy" topic, but you're going to be spending a lot of time researching and writing your literature review. You will have a better time if you research something that interests you!
2. Make sure your topic is specific enough.
You might think that keeping your topic broad will allow you to have more options, but if your topic is too broad, you'll likely get overwhelmed with the amount of research out there and it will be hard to fit all of the ideas into your literature review.
Example of a vague topic: Is television a bad influence on people?
Example of a specific topic: Do shows like 13 Reasons Why affect mental illness in teenage viewers?
3. Explore tools that can help you find and narrow your topic in the box below!
Tools to Find/Narrow Your Topic
- Opposing Viewpoints (Gale in Context) This link opens in a new windowExamines contemporary issues from the pro and con. Features viewpoint articles, topic overviews, full-text magazine, academic journal, and newspaper articles, primary source documents, statistics, images and podcasts, and links to Websites. Gale
- CQ Researcher This link opens in a new windowFounded in 1923 as Editorial Research Reports, CQ Researcher provides in-depth, unbiased coverage of health, social trends, criminal justice, international affairs, education, the environment, technology, and the economy. CQ Press/
- TOPICsearch This link opens in a new windowDesigned for students, TOPICsearch can be used as both a reference resource in the school library and a curriculum support tool in the classroom. Search can be limited by Lexile Reading Levels. EBSCO
