Email askanselm@anselm.edu | |
Chat | |
Text (603) 556-8883 | |
Call (603) 641-7306 | |
Make an Appointment |
Sunday | 2PM - 10PM |
Monday | 11AM - 10PM |
Tuesday | 11AM - 10PM |
Wednesday | 11AM - 10PM |
Thursday | 11AM - 5PM |
Friday | 11AM - 3PM |
Saturday | 12PM - 5PM |
The first stage in writing a research paper is deciding on a topic. Follow these steps:
You may need to adjust the scope of your topic based on how much information you find in the early stages of your research.
If you find too much information, try focusing on one of the following:
If you can't find enough information on which to base a paper, think about how you can expand the scope of your topic. Use the topic narrowing criteria above in reverse; for example, look at a larger group of people, a broader time period, or a wider range of situations.
At this point, you should translate your topic into a search strategy that you can apply in the library's online catalog and journal databases:
Put these keywords and synonyms into the chart below.
express your concepts |
the keywords in Column One |
||||
Concept 1 |
|
|
|
|
|
and | |||||
Concept 2 |
|
|
|
|
|
and | |||||
Concept 3 |
|
|
|
|
|
Example
Topic:
The effect on children of watching violence on TV
Search strategy:
(children OR adolescents OR teenagers) AND (violence OR violent) AND (television OR tv)