Your topic should be focused, but not so narrow that you cannot find enough information about it. For topic ideas, look at your course syllabus and readings, look at some of the reference sources or websites on the “Background Info” page of this research guide, or look at some of the websites on the “Primary Sources” page.
The video below offers some tips for creating good, open-ended research questions to help guide your research:
The following tutorial why identifying keywords is important, how to use key concepts from a research question to select initial keywords, and how to identify additional keywords as you search for information. (from off campus you will need to log in using your Pipeline username and password):
To access the tutorials below from off campus, you will need to log in using your Pipeline username and password.
The following tutorial covers strategies for searching library resources effectively.
The following tutorial covers search tricks that can improve your search results in almost any library database.