Narrowing Your Topic

Get background information so that you understand all the aspects and issues related to your topic. Gale Virtual Reference Library can be useful for this.

What do you know about your topic?

What do you still need to find out about your topic?

What aspects of your topic interest you (historical, psychological, moral, economic, sociological, cultural political, technical, etc.)? [example: cultural aspects of dogs as food]

What time period do you want to cover? [example: trends regarding parental leave within the last five years]

On which geographic region or country do you want to focus? [examples: great white sharks in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef]

On what person or group do you want to focus (may relate to gender, age, ethnicity, etc.)? [example: effect of PTSD on the families of veterans]