Building Science

Now that you've done some background research, it's time to narrow your topic. Remember: the shorter your final paper, the narrower your topic needs to be. Here are some suggestions for narrowing and defining your topic:

• Is there a specific subset of the topic you can focus on?
• Is there a cause and effect relationship you can explore?
• Is there an unanswered question on the subject?
• Can you focus on a specific time period or group of people?

Describe and develop your topic in some detail. Try filling in the blanks in the following sentence, as much as you can:

I want to research ____(what/who)____

and ____(what/who)____

in ____(where)____

during ____(when)____

because ____(why)____.

When you are searching with multiple keywords or search terms:

• "and" means both terms must show up in your results = fewer results
• "or" means either term must show up in your results = more results
• "not" means that the term must not show up in your results = fewer results

Consider limiting your search by:

• full-text only
• date
• peer-peer-reviewed scholarly publications

Most library databases have search tools built in. Try some of these: 

• Subject: Think of subjects as official hashtags. Use them to find sources about that subject.

• Date Range: Limit your search to sources published between specific years.

• ​Peer Reviewed: Limit your search to scholarly journal articles.

• Full Text: Make sure all of the results are available to read in full.

Look on the left and right of your search results, or for an "advanced search" page to find these tools - and more

Things to Consider When Looking Through Databases

Are you required to find "Scholarly Articles," "Peer-Reviewed Articles," or "Academic Articles"? If so, these types of articles are:

• Written and reviewed by scholars, providing new research, analysis, or information about a specific topic.
  • "Review" means the other experts approve the article publication
• Usually focused on a narrow subject or a single case study

• Intended for an academic audience.

Source Evaluation 

You can evaluate any source using the 5 W's:

• Who: ...wrote it? Are they an expert?
• What: ...is the purpose of this resource?
• Where: ...was this information published? ...does the information come from?
• When: ...was this published or last updated?
• Why: ...is this resource useful? ...is this resource better than other ones?