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HIS 105-Country Research (Washburn)

Narrowing Your Topic

Narrow SignIf your topic is a big or complicated concept with tons of books and information out there about it, then you'll want to spend some time narrowing down your topic to something more manageable for the length of your assignment.

An example of this is taking a big, complicated concept like the health care system in Great Britain and narrowing it down to focus on maternity and paternity leave.

This is why exploring your topic was so important - to help you figure out what aspect of the topic you wanted to focus on. This will also help help you come up with keywords (search terms) for your search. As you narrow your topic, remember your assignment requirements and consider what you found out when exploring your topic.

Here are some suggestions to consider:

  • What interests you about the topic?
  • Ask 'how' and 'why' questions about your topic.
  • What questions, concerns, issues, or controversies came up when exploring your topic?
  • Why does this topic matter? What's important about it? Answer the question 'so what' about your topic.

As you start to narrow what you want to focus on, you can begin looking for more sources to guide you. Research is an ongoing process, so you may find a book or article that sends you in a different direction altogether from what you originally thought - that's okay! You can tweak or adjust as you go.

Search Tips

In order to help you find more sources about your topic, you'll want to identify search terms, also known as keywords, to help you search.

As you think about what concepts you want to research, think about what particular words might be found in a good article about that topic.  For instance, if you are writing about the health care in Great Britain.  Think of related keywords and how you can combine them:

AND OR NOT

AND means you are

searching both terms 

together.

OR gives you more

results.

NOT excludes terms

from your search.

Keywords work best by trial-and-error. Never do only one search. Some keywords will work better than others, and some keywords may lead you to different articles than you found in your first search.  Search the databases with the keywords you selected to find relevant articles. And remember to ask a librarian if you need assistance coming up with keywords or looking for sources.