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Choosing a Topic

Learn how to select and refine a topic, translate your topic into searchable keywords, and get started with your research.

Choosing a Topic

This guide can help you select an interesting, workable research topic and help you get started with your research.

  • The Finding an Interesting Topic page can help you select an interesting angle to take on an assigned topic or show you how to pick a workable topic from scratch.
  • The Refining Your Topic page can help you fix the scope of your topic -- much like Goldilocks, you want something that is neither too small nor too large -- and introduces you to using concept maps for building a thesis and selecting keywords.
  • The Research Scheduler link takes you to a guide that walks you through the process to get on track, and stay on track, in your research.

You can navigate to the different pages of this guide by using the picture links below or by using the tabs at the top of the screen.

 

Finding an Interesting Topic              Refining your Topic                                    Research Scheduler

Sandwich board with phrase "the curiosity shoppe" on it                     Concept map using term cell phones as center point                   Color photo of a winding road

 

Photo credits: A-frame sign for the Curiosity Shoppe, Damon Styer,  used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical-ShareAlike License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/deed.en; Concept Map, Gettysburg College's Musselman Library;The Road Ahead, Greg Bishop, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical-ShareAlike License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/deed.en.