Choosing a good topic is hard!

Unless your instructor has assigned a specific topic, it is important to come up with a relevant and suitable topic. Your class instructor, a reference librarian, or a writing center consultant will be happy to help you come up with a relevant and suitable topic.

Focusing your topic is essential and one that you may have to repeat as you find more information on your research project. The following steps can help:

1. State your topic as a question! Identify the main concepts or keywords. Enter these terms the library catalog and/or in research databases. Keep a list of resources as you go.
2. Repeat this process until your topic begins to develop.

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To learn more about your topic, start by looking at basic reference materials such as encyclopedias, etc. These resources contain not only fundamental information on your topic, but also include a bibliography, or list of citations, that will lead you to more information. The Encyclopedia Britannica is one well known general source.

A reference librarian can also direct you to more specific encyclopedias in your subject area, such as the Grove Music and Musicians Online or The Encyclopedia of Energy (print resource - Ref TJ 163.28 E53).

To find background sources on your own, perform a keyword search in the library catalog and include the term: encyclopedias

Or refer to the subject guides (resources grouped by subject) and click on print resources.

Many background sources are available online including:

• Oxford Reference Online and
• The Gale Virtual Reference Library

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Factual information such as biographical sources, statistics, and almanacs can be tricky.

The free flow of information on "The Web" makes more and more information available, but it also makes it more difficult to determine the veracity of that information.

To avoid sifting through thousands of hits and the possibility of finding bogus informtion start by using a library approved list of sites with factual information:

• online reference (cofc)
• Librarians' Internet Index
• Sun Site (Berkeley Digitial Library)

Reference books are still valuable sources for finding factual information, sometimes they are the only source. Seek help from a reference librarian or try a catalog search and limit to "Reference." The U.S. Government is also a great and often overlooked source of factual information. Check out the Government Information Subject Guide for various statistical data like census information.

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