Information Literacy: 01. Develop a Topic

Terminology Matters

Before you can begin searching for information, you need to develop keywords related to your topic. The keywords you develop and use to conduct research will influence your search results. Keywords and phrases can be found by examining:

• Encyclopedias and scholarly articles
• Bibliographies found at the end of articles and books
• Consulting a thesaurus to identify synonyms
• Talking with a librarian, your instructor, or classmate.

This example shows the keywords in the following sentence:

Concept Map

You can also use a concept map to visually organize thoughts and illustrate relationships between concepts and ideas.

Once you have identified keywords, you are ready to collect background information on your topic. As you research, note important words, phrases, and concepts that sources mention and use them to locate additional information.

Background information can be found in:

• encyclopedias
• textbooks
• databases like CQ Researcher
• browsing the Internet

Why bother with background research?

Background research serves many purposes, including:

• It provides an overview of the subject matter, which might be new to you.
• It assists with identifying relevant information for your topic, including dates, events, and relevant terminology.
• It will lead you to additional sources of information.
• It will aid in narrowing your topic.

Write it down

Once you have a topic idea, it is helpful to write everything you know or don't know about it down. From there, use that information to formulate questions. Avoid asking closed questions that can be answered with a simple yes or no. Instead, ask open-ended questions that prompt you to explore different aspects of the topic.

Try filling in the blanks in the following sentence:

• I want to research ___(what/who)___
• and ___(what/who)___
• in ___(where)___
• during ___(when)___
• because ___(why)___.

It is important to consider the scope of your topic. If it is too broad, it might be difficult to find relevant information. If your topic is too narrow, it might be tough to find any information at all. Generally, it is a good strategy to start out with a slightly broad topic that you can further develop and narrow as you find information.

Examples:

• Too broad: "History or women"
• Better: "History of female gender roles in Afghanistan during the 20th century"
• Too narrow: "Current child-rearing practices of women in Kabul, Afghanistan”
• Better: “How gender roles in Afghanistan impact the lives of women”

Remember: the shorter your final paper, the narrower your topic needs to be.