How Do I Pick A Research Topic?

You may be writing a 3-5 page basic freshman comp-type paper, a detailed upper-level course in your major, a speech… it doesn’t matter; sooner or later, on your own, or with the help of your classmates, teachers and librarians, you have to decide exactly what you want to write about!

BEFORE you examine the resources below, you need to think about the requirements of the research project. It might help you to organize your thoughts using these steps:

1. Name your topic: I am studying ___________________________________
2. Imply your question: because I want to find out who/how/why __________
3. State the rationale for the question and the project: in order to understand how/why/what _____________________________________________________

[from Booth, The Craft of Research, 1995]

Help organize your thoughts with our Library Research Planner.

You may start with one set of variables filling out the above, but as you do your preliminary reading & researching, you should expect it to change as you refine your final topic choice.

Print Support	Databases	Current Events	Online help from other libraries [tutorials, guides]
Beyond Your Library’s Resources	Help from ISU Librarians	Other ISU Library Guides

Print Support

• Buy a copy of Arco’s 10,000 Ideas for Term Papers, Projects, Reports and Speeches (5th ed, 1998, Simon & Schuster), ISBN 0028625129, $12.95 or similar title

•  Z 710 .B73 1996:  100 Research Topic Guides for Students

•  LB 2369 .L83 1988:  Research Projects for College Students; what to write across the curriculum

•  ZA3050 .W47 2001: 9 Jumpstarts To Research : topic guides for finding information on current issues

• Do keyword searches in the Online Catalog  combining a topic and words like [trends, issues, current topics, handbook, introduction, encyclopedia, bibliography]

• Find the general LC classification area  for your research area. Use the online catalog’s New Books link  to browse recent library acquisitions. Just the title of a new book may give you an idea for your research project.

• Look for books on writing! Subject headings include:

  • Research Methodology

  • Technical Writing

  • Report writing 

  • Research handbooks

Databases

• Proquest’s   Topic Guide Explore Proquest using a hierarchical subject directory. Indexed topics may include subjects, companies, people, and locations.

• Ebscohost’s Topicsearch  

• CQ Researcher each issue contains 15-20 pages of information on a specific topic

• Facts on File : Reuters News [last two weeks]; Today’s News; Indexes/Topical indexes to stories from 1980-2000; World News Digest

Find a topic by looking at current events via sites like:

• Yahoo’s Full Coverage

•  Yahoo’s Top Stories

•  Public Agenda Online

•  Lycos Search Engine’s Social Issues

•  WWW Virtual Library

•  Life Outlined

Online Help from Libraries

• Newspapers Databases & Internet Sites Research Guide

• Purdue’s CORE tutorial’s especially Topic Exploration section!

• The Flow of Information [part of tutorial]

• Finding Topics and Information for Papers and Speeches

• Writing a Research Paper/Topic

• How to Find and Develop a Viable Research Topic

• Defining Your Research Topic and Starting Your Search

• Define the Research Topic

• Define Your Topic

• Developing a Topic: Strategies and Suggestions           

• Controversial Issues Series Titles

Beyond Your Library’s Resources

• Books in Print

• WorldCat

• Ingenta

• Commercial sites such as Amazon.com

• Interlibrary Loan [for Indiana State University-affiliated library users]

  • info   ~~  book request form  ~~   article request form

Discuss other possibilities with librarians

Other ISU Library Research Guides

The Freshman Composition Library Experience web site  groups our online guides in a format that may be useful to others as well. You may wish to purchase a copy of the text used in many of our classes: Robert Perrin’s Handbook for College Research.