Skyline College Information Competency Modules
DEVELOPING A RESEARCH TOPIC AND SEARCH
STRATEGY
PREPARING TO DO RESEARCH: SUBJECTS vs. TOPICS
You cannot do research effectively unless you have an
appropriate topic in mind. This will
depend on understanding the difference between a subject and a topic:
* SUBJECT: a broad area of interest
from which a more specific research
question can be chosen. Examples
of subjects include: illegal immigration, alcoholism, freedom of speech,
computer networks, elementary education, astronomy.
* TOPIC:
a question that
focuses on one particular aspect, event, controversy, issue, or dilemma within
the larger subject. It’s a relatively narrow area of interest that can be
thoroughly researched and discussed.
Given below are examples of subjects and research topics:
SUBJECT RESEARCH
TOPIC
The death penalty How does the death penalty affect violent crime
rates in the
Astronomy What are the latest scientific
discoveries about life on Mars?
Illegal immigration How
does illegal immigration affect job growth in the
The mass media What are the effects of
media monopolies on news reporting and editorial freedom?
The Internet What steps – if any – should the
government take to protect children from
pornography and sexual predators on the Internet?
GUIDELINES FOR CHOOSING A TOPIC
When formulating your topic, keep in mind the following guidelines:
* Don’t choose a topic that is too broad or too narrow.
Too Broad: What causes homelessness?
Too
Narrow: How many homeless are in
Appropriately focused: How has deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill
contributed to the problem of homelessness?
* Ask open-ended questions.
Notice that each of the
topic examples in section 7 are open-ended questions,
i.e. they are phrased in such a way that the researcher is deliberating
inviting varying perspectives. This open-minded approach to all viewpoints is
essential.
* Avoid topics that are too speculative.
Avoid topics in which you are merely presenting your own opinion on a philosophical
or abstract topic. Good research topics
allow you to find facts, evidence, and objective discussions.
Too speculative: What is the difference
between a just and an unjust law?
* Avoid topics that are too bland.
Choose a topic that will be interesting and intellectually challenging both
to you and your audience. Avoid
questions that fail to provoke thought or engage readers in a debate.
Too bland: How was the
* Your topic should have at least 2 main
ideas (called “concepts”).
A well-formulated research question will always contain at least two
aspects or main ideas, referred to as concepts.
The concepts can be phrased in relation to each other, typically in one of the
following ways:
|
“What is the
effect of |
(concept #1)
on |
(concept #2) ?" |
|
"What
is the role of |
(concept #1)
in |
(concept #2) ?" |
|
"How
has the use of |
(concept #1)
affected |
(concept #2) ?" |
|
“Why has |
(concept #1)
led to |
(concept #2) ?” |
* Begin your research question with the words How, Why, or What.
Research questions beginning with these words automatically suggest a somewhat
broad investigation and substantive discussion, thus helping you avoid phrasing
your topic too narrowly. Avoid starting your research question with the words Who, Where, or When.
These words tend to force your research into a limited aspect of your subject
and you'll be unable to come up with enough material for your project.
ADVANCED SEARCH STRATEGY
Once you have developed
a research question that has multiple concepts, you're ready to develop a
search strategy so you can carry out effective searches.
Let's use the following research question to illustrate how to use Boolean
logic to carry out an advanced search:
"What is the effect of illegal
immigration on the
Dividing a Research Question into Concepts
The first step in the process of developing a search strategy for a topic is to
analyze the research question (or research topic) and break it down into main
ideas or concepts such as "illegal immigration" and "
Breaking a research question (or research topic) into appropriate concepts can
sometimes be a tricky process. A topic can often be divided into various
combinations of concepts. Each concept should be stated as precisely and
succinctly as possible and words that describe the relationship between
concepts should not be included. Only the most significant words from the
research question (or topic statement) are usually included as terms for one of
the concepts. Words that are not essential in defining a concept (such as
"what" and "effect" in our example) should not be included
as terms.
Finding Synonymous or Related Terms for Each Concept
Once the topic has been broken into basic concepts, as many search terms as
possible should be listed for each concept. Any terms that are synonymous or
closely related to a concept should be included.
If we take the concept illegal immigration from our search example, we
might list the following additional related terms for that concept: illegal
immigrants, illegal aliens or undocumented workers. For the
concept, economy, we could also list economics. For the concept,
Using a Search Worksheet
It is very useful to organize the various search terms for each concept in a
research question by using a "Search Worksheet" as shown below.
Research Question (or Topic):
What is the effect of illegal immigration on the
|
CONCEPT
# |
Search Terms |
|
1 |
illegal
immigration |
illegal
aliens |
undocumented
workers |
x |
x |
|
2 |
economy |
economics |
x |
x |
x |
|
3 |
|
|
American |
x |
x |
In many databases, such as the Gale PowerSearch databases, an advanced search mode allows you to
enter all of the search terms for all your concepts on a single search page.
Separate entry boxes are provided for each concept with a choice of Boolean
operators (e.g. AND or OR) available between each of
the entry boxes.
This process is described in detail in the tutorial, Advanced
Searching on Skyline College Library Periodical Databases.
Truncation and "Wildcards"
It is common to find that several search terms identified for a single concept
may begin with the same root. For example, for the concept economy, you
may also want to include economic or economics or economist.
Instead of listing all of these terms separately, many databases allow a search
procedure called truncation. The truncation feature lets you use a
special symbol to search for any words beginning with a particular root. The
most common truncation symbol used by many databases is the asterisk (*),
but some databases use the question mark (?), or the exclamation point (!).
In our search example, we could use truncation to search for
"economy" or "economic" or "economics" or "economist",
by simply entering "econom*"
in the InfoTrac or Gale databases. It is important to
be careful, however, when using truncation, because if you truncate after too
short of a stem, you might retrieve words that you don't want. If you used eco*
instead of econom*, for example, you
would also retrieve records with the words ecology or ecosystem.
In addition to the use of truncation for words with same root but different
endings, some databases allow the use of a special symbol, often called a wildcard,
in the middle of a word to search for spelling variations such as adviser
or advisor. The "wildcard" symbol would be used in place of
the letter that may vary, e.g. advis?r
would find either adviser or advisor.