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Finding a Paper Topic

This page has been created to help students pick a topic or narrow a topic. 

If you have not been assigned a topic by your instructor and can make your own choice you will want to be sure you pick a topic that you are interested in!   Often you will spend a good deal of time researching a topic and you want it to be one of interest.

1. Search for articles in a online periodical database:  

  • An online periodical database can help you decide a topic by showing you what has been written about a particular topic and what the current trends are in the field. 
  • A quick search in a periodical database will give you an idea if there is going to be enough to use for your topic or if there is going to be so much that you should narrow it down some.
  • For a variety of topics you should start with a database such as Academic Search Premier from EbscoHost[about] (ASE) from EBSCOhost.  ASE covers over 4,000 periodicals from Life magazine to the Journal of the American Medical Association.
  • Scan article titles and abstracts to find key terms that you might be able to use to narrow your topic.
  • Note any subject headings that might be useful for different search.

2. Read an Encyclopedia Article on your topic: 

  • Your instructor may have said that he/she does not want you using an encyclopedia as a source.  As long as you don't quote the encyclopedia and still find other sources, you can use an encyclopedia to help you choose a topic or to help you understand the basics of one you already have in mind.
  • An encyclopedia is not as up-to-date as periodical articles are for most topics, but they can offer a broad overview of a topic and the articles are usually written by experts in the field.
  • You will find general encyclopedias in the reference collection on the 3rd floor of the library:
    • Academic American Encyclopedia REF AE5 .A23 1997
    • Collier's Encyclopedia AE5 .C683 1996
    • Encyclopedia Americana AE5 .E35 1994
    • The New Encyclopedia Britannica AE5 .E363 1993
    • The World Book Encyclopedia AE5 .W55 1999
  • In addition to general encyclopedias, you can often find subject specific encyclopedias.  The reference collection has a number of subject specific encyclopedias, for example:
    Encyclopedia of Social Work (Ref HV35 .S6)
    • To find an encyclopedia on your topic do a keyword search in the online catalog, Cofrin Library Catalog.  For example to find an encyclopedia that covers the field of criminal justice, you would enter a Keyword-Boolean search, example:  encyclopedia AND criminal justice

3. Consult other reference books:

  • The reference collection is full of useful books that can give you background information on your topic such as almanacs, yearbooks, handbooks, or bibliographies.
    • Almanacs are useful for providing quick answers to basic questions like: "What is suicide rate among teenagers?"   These statistics can lead you to government agencies that may have published other materials on that topic.
    • Yearbooks are useful for giving you an overview of trends that occurred in a particular year.
    • Handbooks give short introductions to concepts, procedures, or techniques for various topics.
    • Bibliographies can sometimes be "one-stop shopping" since they list books, articles, etc. on a particular topic.   By using a bibliography you can see how much has been written and get a sense of what some of the subtopics are.
  • There are also a number of reference sources available online.  netLibrary is a great place to look for electronic reference books.

4. Consult web sites:

  • Though a professor may say you can not use web sites for your paper, like encyclopedias, you can still use them to help you get a handle on a topic.
  • You can use one of the many Internet Search Tools to find a web site on your topic.