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Focusing A Research Topic

Focusing A Research Topic

Welcome!

So you want to research....the environment.  Or abortion.  Or health care. 

If your topic is as broad as these examples, you have some work to do before you can really start your research.  Focusing your topic will save you time and headache, and make your paper a lot more interesting. 

This guide was created for community college students researching a particular topic for a paper or project.  Most students need to narrow (and occasionally broaden) their research topics at least once during their research process.  It's good practice to know how to zoom in and zoom out of focus on your topic if needed during different parts of your project.

Locating Materials

Books in this guide are shelved on the 3rd floor of the Learning Resource Center unless they are marked Reference (2nd floor). Electronic books (ebooks) are accessible from any Internet connection with student ID number and eservices password.

Contact the library research help desk if you need help finding books, media, periodical articles available through the library’s databases, and reliable websites for your research.