Identify a Topic
Test Your Topic

Once you have identified and tested your topic, you're ready to take the next step, finding background information on your research topic.

For more information Ask A Librarian.

Identify a Topic

If you haven't picked a topic yet, go to Choosing and Refining a Topic.

State your topic idea as a question. For example, if you are interested in finding out about use of alcoholic beverages by college students, you might pose the question, "______?"

Identify the main concepts or keywords in your question. In this case they are alcoholic beverages, health, and college students.

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Test Your Topic

Test the main concepts or keywords in your topic by looking them up in the appropriate background sources, in the Library of Congress Subject Headings book, and testing them out in a subject specific index.

If you are finding too much information and too many sources, narrow your topic by using the AND operator: "beer" and "health" and "college students", for example.

Finding too little information may indicate that you need to broaden your topic. For example, look for information on "students", rather than "college students".

Link synonymous search terms with OR: "alcoholic beverages" or "beer" or "wine" or "liquor".

Using truncation with search terms also broadens the search and increases the number of items you find.

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