Starting Your Research

Step 1: Brainstorm Your Topic

Brainstorming your topic is the start of any research process. This is when you're trying to figure out what topic you're interested in and see what kind of information is out there about it.

Background information can help you prepare for further research by explaining all the issues related to your topic, especially when you're investigating a field that's unfamiliar to you. Getting more background information on a topic enables you to:

Brainstorm your topic
Collect keywords or important terms, concepts and author names to use when searching databases
Start thinking in broad terms, then narrow down your topic.
- Remember: Finding more specific aspects of your topic that you want to investigate is essential for getting a more manageable results list when searching. Less, but more relevant, information is key.
Develop a manageable research question—that is, a question that you would like answered about broad topic.

Finding Background Information

The following resources are great places to get the background research necessary for later steps in the research process:

CQ Researcher
In-depth reports and analysis on political and social issues, each covering a single theme and providing solid background information, with regular reports on topics in health, international affairs, education, the environment, technology and the U.S. economy. Each 13,000-word CQ Researcher report is a unique work, investigated and written by a seasoned journalist.
CREDO Reference
A collection of nearly 500 encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other reference books provides a good starting point for research.

Step 2: Develop Your Research Question

When starting your research, it is important to develop a research question to keep your searches structured and to keep the scope of the resources you find relevant. A research question is a question that you would like answered about broad topic.

Things to consider:

What questions do you want to answer? Are these questions new and innovative?
What audiences do you want to reach and how do you want them to be influenced?
What is the purpose of the research you want to use to test your hypothesis?

Step 3: Define Your Search Strategy

Keywords are phrases or terms that search engines use to find resources by matching search terms entered to indexed terms in the record. Build your keywords by pulling out the main points of your research questions and by developing additional terms that describe the articles you are hoping to find.

Social Work

Encyclopedias & Handbooks

Starting Your Research

Step 1: Brainstorm Your Topic

Finding Background Information

Credo Reference

Step 2: Develop Your Research Question

Things to consider:

Step 3: Define Your Search Strategy

Tutorial | Developing Your Topic

Developing your Topic