Jane Long
MLIS, University of Oklahoma
MA, English, Wright State University
Reference Services Librarian
Al Harris Library jane.long@swosu.edu

• Select something that is of interest to you.
• Remember that as an academic writer, you will need to develop a scholarly perspective on your subject.
• A scholarly topic should:
– Examine one narrowed issue, not a broad subject.
– Address knowledgeable readers and carry them to another plateau of knowledge.
– Have a serious purpose—one that demands analysis of the issues, argues from a position, and/or explains complex details.
– Meets the expectations of the instructor and conforms to the course requirements.

• Try to make a connection between your interests and the inherent issue of your subject.
• Remember, you can’t write a personal essay and call it a research paper, yet you can choose topics close to your life.
• Let’s look at a few ideas.

1. Combine personal interests with an area of academic studies :
Personal interest: Skiing
Academic subject: Sports medicine
Possible topics: “Protecting the Knees”
“Therapy for Strained Muscles”
2. Consider social issues that affect you and your family:
Personal interest: The education of my child
Academic subject: The behavior of my child in school
Possible topics: “Children Who Are Hyperactive”
“Should Schoolchildren Take Medicine to
Calm Their Hyperactivity?”
3. Let your cultural background prompt you toward research into your heritage or your culture:
Ethnic background: Hispanic
Personal interest: Struggles of the Mexican child in an
American classroom
Possible topic: “Bicultural Experiences of Hispanic
Students: The Failures and Triumphs”

• What can I do to take better care of the environment?
• Do Americans need health care? What does the taxing of health care mean?
• Are the Vietnam War and the war in
Afghanistan similar?
• What is Lupus, and am I at risk?
• Is traditional marriage going out of style?
• Do Americans need more security when they are using the Internet?

Where/How Do I Begin My Topic Search?
– Library Catalog
• Reference Area
• Search the catalog for:
– Books, ebooks, videos
– Databases
• TOPICsearch
• CQ Researcher
• Issues and Controversies
• Points of View Reference Center
• Pop Culture Universe
• Newsbank Access World News , Newspaper
Source Plus

• Almanacs, dictionaries, handbooks, and encyclopedias are useful tools for finding quick facts, statistics, or a broad overview of your topic.
• If you need background information about your topic, these tools can be a good place to start.
• You can find them in the catalog .

• Ebrary provides more than 44,000 digital books in a broad range of subject areas, including business, technology, health and medicine, literature and the humanities, physical sciences, social sciences, and interdisciplinary studies. Ebrary digital books contain the full-text and illustrations of their print counterparts

1. Keywords
– Flexible Terms
– Easy Searches
– Less Accuracy in
Searching
– Use of Phrases

• Identify the significant terms and concepts that describe your topic from your thesis statement or research question .
• These terms will become the key for searching catalogs, databases and search engines for information about your subject.

• Single concept, multiple words
• Some electronic resources require keyword phrases be enclosed with punctuation by using
– Quotation marks – SWOSU Catalog
– Parenthesis

• Basic phrase “criminal justice”
• Proper names “Native American”
• Hyphenated words “x-ray”
• Slogans, advertisements
• Famous quotations “hope is the thing with feathers”
• Movie titles,
“The quicker pickerupper.” song titles “The Blind Side”

2. Boolean Operators
– Connect keywords only
– Must be placed between keywords
– AND
• Narrows your search
– OR
• Expands your search with synonymous terms
– NOT
• Excludes words from your search
• If used too much, it can work against you!

• Here is an example of a visual word search tool:
– Visuwords
– Use the suggestions made in the databases

• First, narrow down the topic
– What type of energy?
• Oil resources?
• Water resources?
– What is meant by conserve?
• Will I focus on health issues?
• Focus on using fewer products?
• Focus on preserving what we have?
– Who is involved in conservation?
• Is this a call to action?
• Will I consider what can be accomplished by an individual?

• AND (narrows)
– conservation and energy
– conservation and preservation and “alternative transportation”

• OR (expands)
– conservation or environment
– improvement or betterment
• AND & OR together
– conservation or environment and ecology
– improvement or betterment and
“alternative transportation”

• NOT (excludes)
– preparation not cookery
– maintain not embalm
• AND, OR & NOT together
– ecology and “biological science” or environment not element

• Non-universal symbols used in searching
• Common symbols:
* ?
• Used with a root word
• Used to replace a vowel or single character

• Root Word- looks for multiple endings of a word, in this case it takes the place of ‘OR’
– jump?
– jump, jumps, jumping, jumper, jumpers
– rope and jumping or jumps or jump
– rope and jump?

• Singular/Plural- replaces a vowel or single character in a word, in this case it takes the place of ‘OR’
– wom*n
– woman, women
– history and woman or women
– history and wom*n

• Rely on the use of Boolean Operators to search
• Remember the importance of good keywords; use synonyms that provide additional search possibilities
• Formulate a research question that aids you in narrowing your search
• Example: What are a few simple things we can do to protect our natural resources?

• An Ebsco product
• Use Limiters to Narrow Search
• Example: Environment
– Current Events
– Full Text
– Topics
– Document Type

• CQ Researcher
• contains information on current and controversial issues concentric to the
U.S. Government
• Points of View Reference Center
• provides a variety of essays presenting multiple sides of a current issue
• Issues and Controversies
• provides up-to-date, objective information on the most prominent and hotly debated issues of the day

• Contact me:
– Jane Long
• 774-3030
• jane.long@swosu.edu
• http://faculty.swosu.edu/jane.long/