Please be sure to review your class assignment instructions--they give excellent ideas for narrowing your topic.
Below are some other ideas and examples for narrowing your topic and beginning research in a library database. These are only ideas--you don't have to follow these examples exactly in your project!
- It's important to narrow your topic, because no one can write a paper on a topic as huge and broad as health care, for example, or gender. Narrowing and focusing your topic will help you research and write your project!
- The searches below use library search techniques: AND, OR, parentheses, quotation marks, and the * symbol. For a refresher on these techniques, please see our library guide for database searching.
- Please note: The searches below are links that will take you into our library OneSearch database, where you'll see the results of the search. You can then begin reviewing the articles that come up and perhaps even choose a few that you can use in your assignment, if the search closely matches your topic.
Search results in the library are different than in Google. Google gives you a lot of easy-to-understand, practical information. The library will give you primarily in-depth, technically-written, scientific studies. These are called scholarly articles. They can be difficult to understand at first, but if you can choose a scholarly article that relates to your topic and then review the article carefully, you can usually extract a main idea or a relevant fact or two that you can incorporate in your paper.
Narrow the topic of Race Issues
- Try thinking of a more specific issue that relates to the general topic of race issues, for example, Black Lives Matter
- Examples of library keyword searches to research Black Lives Matter:
Narrow the topic of Homelessness
- Try thinking of a population of people affected by homelessness, for example, women:
- Examples of library keyword searches to research homelessness and women:
Narrow the topic of Social Class
- It may help to research a specific group and how they are affected by social class or stratification, as well as narrowing to the United States, for example:
- Examples of library keyword searches to research social class in the United States and a specific population:
Narrow the topic of Health Care
- Try to think of specific aspects of health care that affect society, for example, access, as well as narrowing to the United States, for example
- Examples of library keyword searches to research equal access to health care:
Narrow the topic of Gender
- Try to think of a population of people affected by gender issues, for example, transgender adolescents:
- Examples of library keyword searches to research transgender adolescents:
Narrow the topic of the Environment
- Try to think of a specific issue that affects the environment, for example, aspects of climate change:
- Examples of library keyword searches to research aspects of climate change:
Narrow the topic of Immigration
- Try to think of a population of people affected by immigration, such as, children of immigrants, as well focusing on the United States:
- Examples of library keyword searches to research children of immigrants in the United States:
Narrow the topic of Sexual Orientation
- Try to think of a topic associated with a specific sexual orientation, for example, the LGBTQ community:
- Examples of library keyword searches related to the LGBTQ community:
Narrow the topic of Technology
- Try to think of a specific topics having to do with technology, such as Zoom and work, or video game addiction:
- Examples of library keyword searches on specific technology topics: