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. This page will help you do these things.
Narrowing Your Topic
Developing Search Terms
eBooks
What to Search
You can look for generic subject headings such as
American Civil War (be sure to include American)
Or you can look for specific people, such as Frederick Douglass.
Or you can look for specifics like a location or a document, such as Antietam or Gettysburg Address.
For literature, you can look up American Civil War literature or look up particular titles or authors.
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