Topic Development Worksheet
(1.) Before you begin searching for information on your topic you will need to do some thinking.
When you begin to work on a research paper you often have a general idea of what you want to
research (e.g., “I want to do a paper on television”). As you think about your topic and discuss it with
your professor and classmates you should begin to have a more specific idea for the topic of your
paper. At this stage, it is useful to communicate your topic by writing it in the form of question:
Example: What are the effects of television violence on children?
Now describe your topic below in the form of a written question:
(2.) Look at this question and try to identify the main concepts of your topic. There are usually at
least two concepts although sometimes there may be three.
Example: What are the [1] effects of [2] television [3] violence on [4] children?
Go back to the question that you wrote in #1 above, and put the main concepts in bold (you may
have less than four, or one concept might be multiple words).
(3.) There will probably be more than one word to describe each concept. When you’re searching, it
helps to brainstorm several related words (or synonyms) for each concept. (Google searches
synonyms automatically, but with the library databases you need to think of them yourself!) Here’s
an example of brainstorming related words:
effects
television
violence
children
consequences
TV
murder
adolescents
impacts
media
guns
youth
Now, try it with your topic. Use reference sources (like encyclopedias or Wikipedia) or websites
about your topic to help you discover related terms you might use in your search. Type the main
concepts from your research question in the top row, and type a couple related terms below each one.
These are the words that you will use when you search for information. You will almost certainly add
to this list or delete concepts from it as you progress through your research.
Now, visit the Library’s website and click on the Subject Guides link.
Look at the list of subjects. What Subject Guide do you believe would be most useful to find
information on your topic? Write the name of the Subject Guide here:
Now go to the Subject Guide for English Composition. Scroll down and click on Articles/Databases.
Use Multisearch or Academic Search Complete and start searching for some articles on your topic.
What problems did you encounter? Write down at least two questions about the search process here,
and we will answer them together in class:
1.
2.
(Continued below…scroll down to next page)
Considering Alternative Viewpoints
Brainstorm possible arguments or ideas you may encounter during your search or found when you
looked at the library databases Multisearch or Academic Search Complete.
What are some possible arguments you could make? For our sample question, “What are the effects
of television violence on children?” we may find arguments that say it is harmful to children, while
others may say it is not.
Write out some possible alternative views for your question:
Can you add any keywords to your list based on these alternative views? If so, write them in here:
It may be helpful to identify our own assumptions about this topic; for example, these are my
assumptions about television violence and child aggression:
I think television violence is harmful. I think a lot of exposure could make a child hyperactive
or even more violent.
Write out any assumption you have about your topic:
By doing this exercise, you may become aware that you have a bias about the topic and that other
writers may also have bias. In fact, most material you find will have some kind of bias. What is
important is to be aware of it and take it into account when you evaluate arguments (your own and
those of other authors).
Analyzing an Argument
A model based on Little, Brown, Hubbuch, and Toulmin
(See separate PowerPoint)