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Generating Topic Ideas

Generating Topic Ideas: Five Good Strategies Strategy 1: Real world brainstorming. Answer these questions and compile all your answers into a list of potential topics. Question: What interests, activities, and aspects of your life define you outside of school? Question: What problems--physical, emotional, economic, etc.--affect you or those close to you? Question: What do you think are the biggest problems facing our community/country/planet? Strategy 2: Brainstorming on the web. Google a broad topic you've brainstormed, has been suggested by your professor, or has been discussed in your classroom or textbook. This is a quick and easy way to get a snapshot of how other people are addressing your topic. Write down any ideas you find intriguing. Strategy 3: Using a pick a topic database. The Library subscribes to 6 different databases providing ideas for topics. Strategy 4: Meeting with your professor. Your professor literally invented the assignment and has read lots of successful responses to it. They can likely offer you great ideas from past semesters, plus advise you on pitfalls to avoid. Plus, taking advantage of an office hour is a great way to get to know your professor better. Strategy 5: Collaborating with MJC librarians. Your MJC research librarians collaborate with thousands of students every semester, and they also work closely with classroom faculty. They are a strong and creative source of topic ideas and can also help you get started finding sources.

Pick a Topic Databases

You can get ideas for research topics from several MJC article databases.

Congressional Research Service Reports RSS

Indepth, non-partisan analysis of issues of public debate by Congress’s think tank, the Congressional Research Service. You can view them by Topic or follow their RSS Feed of Most Recent Reports.

Most Recent Reports

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Subjects: Research Tips
Tags: how_to, howto, research, topics
Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 and CC BY-NC 4.0 Licenses.