Narrowing Your Topic
Before you start your research, you need to create a narrow research topic or question that fits the scope of your assignment. You also need search terms that describe your topic so that you can use them to find sources for your topic. If not, you will end up with a TON of random articles, and this often leads to frustration. This page will help!
Narrowing Your Topic
Developing Search Terms
Pre-Search Video
Picking Your Topic IS Research
Narrowing Your Topic
Examples of Narrowing Down Your Topic
Use the last column to help you develop your research question.
Research Question=the question your paper is trying to answer
Wikipedia - Wait...I can use that??
The most famous of all encyclopedias is Wikipedia. Can't use Wikipedia, you say?! Wikipedia is a great place to gain background knowledge of a topic. You can use it for research but NOT as a resource. Here is a great video from North Carolina State University that tells you more about Wikipedia.
There is a right way and wrong way to use Wikipedia.
DO
- Do use to become familiar with a topic - Wikipedia is a great place to answer the who, what, where, why, when, and how questions of your topic. Answers to these questions can help you narrow your topic and can lead to search terms and keywords when you dig deeper into your research.
- Do look at references used in the article - Wikipedia can lead you to legitimate sources that ARE appropriate for college-level research. (You will be citing a source that is NOT Wikipedia).
- Do keep a level of skepticism - like anything online, be sure to evaluate the content of the article.
DON'T
- Don't cite Wikipedia in your bibliography or Works Cited - Use Wikipedia as background knowledge and as a springboard for future research ONLY. Wikipedia is great for pre-search. Use it as a resource for future research; not for research itself.