Selecting a topic

Chances are you have some framework for your assignment but your teacher has left the topic up to you. This might be the hardest part of the assignment!

Here are some sites to help you find a topic you will be interested in researching.

• If your assignment is to research something in Current Events, try Documents in the News from the University of Michigan.
• If your assignment is for Social Studies, browse the Google Social Studies directory for topics.
• If your assignment is a Science Fair project try the Idea Bank from the Ultimate Science Fair Resource
• If your assignment is more general, browse magazines for ideas. You can use either print magazines, available at the Media Center, or online magazine subscriptions like the Infotrac General Reference Center Gold collection on NC WiseOwl. Ask your Media Specialist for help!

Too narrow or too broad a topic?

Although you may not know it right away, as you work on your research you will probably need to narrow or broaden your topic. Sometimes the topic must be adjusted to fit the assignment page limit, your original topic is just too big to explain well in a 5 page paper so you need to narrow the topic. Other times it has more to do with how well you can actually answer the question you plan to research; if you need to include more sources to present the entire topic accurately, you may need to broaden your topic.

For detailed directions explaining how to narrow or broaden a topic, check out the Refining a Topic page from Duke Library.