The early stages of the research process are challenging for many students.  Often, students start their research with a broad topic idea in mind, but struggle to turn that topic into a paper.

• World War II
• Berlin Wall
• Great Depression
• Joan of Arc 

One problem is that we frequently start to search for sources before having a good idea of how to focus a research topic.  Rather than immediately searching for sources, it is usually a good idea to do some background research on your topic and then focus more specific ideas into a question. Watch the video to learn more about doing background research on your topic.

Do's

• Find Background Information
  • Entries and embedded links can be used to generate ideas and learn the terminology associated with your topic.
• Generate Search Terms
  • Take a look at the embedded links, words in bold, or table of contents. They can help generate search terms to use for searching in library databases.
• Look at the Bibliography
  • The bottom of the page should list the sources used to compile the entry. They can point you to other resources (sometimes scholarly) on the topic.

Don't Do's

• Cite to Wikipedia
  • In academic research, you usually never cite to an encyclopedia or other sources of background information.
• Believe Everything
  • Because the content is user-created, anonymous, and does not have a mandatory review process, there is no guarantee that the information is accurate and credible.