HIST 1700: American Civilization

The ability to develop a good research topic is an important skill. When deciding on a topic, there are a few things that you will need to do:

• Brainstorm for ideas.
• Choose a topic that will enable you to read and understand the articles and books you find.
• Ensure that the topic is manageable and that material is available.
• Make a list of search terms.
• Be flexible—you may have to broaden or narrow your topic to fit your assignment or the sources you find.

Selecting a good topic may not be easy. It must be narrow and focused enough to be interesting, yet broad enough to find adequate information. Before selecting your final topic, make sure you know what your final project should look like. 

1. Brainstorming for a Topic

 A research topic often begins as a broad, general subject that needs to be narrowed and refined. Choose a topic that interests you. Use the following questions to help generate topic ideas.

• Do you have a strong opinion on a current social or political controversy?
• Did you read or see a news story recently that piqued your interest or made you angry or anxious?
• Do you have a personal issue, problem, or interest that you would like to know more about?
• Is there an aspect of your class that you are interested in learning more about?

Write down any search terms or concepts that may be of interest to you. These terms can be helpful in your searching and used to form a more focused research topic.

Be aware of overused ideas when deciding a topic.

2. Read General Background Information

Background information can help you learn about the history, scope, depth, and breadth of your topic. It can be useful to help you understand a subject, as well as give you information to help you narrow a topic. Google, encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other reference works can give you a broad overview of your topic and help you identify search terms. Reference sources will help you begin your research but should not be the foundation for a history research paper.

Reading a broad summary enables you to get an overview of the topic and see how your idea relates to broader, narrower, and related issues. It also provides a great source for finding words commonly used to describe the topic. These search terms may be very useful to your later research.

Some of the information that a background search can provide includes:

• Broad overview of the subject
• Definitions of the topic
• Introduction to key issues
• Names of people who are authorities in the field
• Major dates and events
• Keywords and subject-specific vocabulary terms that can be used for database searches
• Bibliographies that lead to additional resources

If you can't find an article on your topic, try using broader terms and ask for help from a librarian.

3. Focus Your Topic

Keep it manageable and be flexible. If you aren't finding enough sources that support your thesis, you may need to adjust your topic.

A topic will be very difficult to research if it is too broad or narrow. One way to narrow a broad topic such as "history of public schools" is to limit your topic. Some common ways to limit a topic are:

• location: United States; Mobile, Alabama; urban; southern
• time frame: 18th Century, Civil War, 1960s
• population: age, race, gender, nationality, ethnic group, occupation
• event: impact of redistricting, school finance, school choice, integration 
• issue: private schools, parochial schools, public schools

Narrower Topic: What was the impact of integrating on public schools in Alabama during 1960-1965?

Putting your topic in the form of a question will help you focus on what type of information you want to collect.

Boolean operators are words or symbols that tell library databases how to search. With Google, you can throw search terms at the search box and trust that Google's search rules and algorithms will take care of things. Library databases need you to type in the search rules along with the topics and subjects you're searching for.

AND

This command tells the database to search for two or more words in article titles, topics, abstracts.

• "Bayonet Constitution" AND Hawaii
• "Bayonet Constitution" AND Hawaii AND agriculture 

OR

This tool tells the database to find at least one of two or three words. This tool is the best way to search for synonyms without having to try an entire series of searches:

• "Equal Rights Amendment" AND ("womens rights" OR "human rights")
• "Japanese American" AND ("internment camps" OR "concentration camps")

"Quotation Marks"

Quotation marks are used to tell databases to search for words in a certain order. This is especially useful for finding titles or specific topics that can't be boiled down to a specific word:

• ("Native American" OR indigenous)  AND ("boarding schools" OR "residential schools")
• ("Native American" OR indigenous)  AND ("boarding schools" OR "residential schools") AND abuse

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