Develop Your Topic
When deciding on a topic, it is helpful to conduct background research. Some good places to find background information:
- Your textbook or class readings
- Encyclopedias and reference books
- Credible websites
- Library databases
Keep in mind the goal of conducting background research is to:
- become familiar enough with the topic
- start to develop some questions to guide your later research, or
- determine what direction you want to take in your research.
Try the library databases below to explore your topic. When you're ready, move on to refining your topic.
Now that you have done some background research, you will probably find that you need to narrow your topic.
Remember: the shorter your final paper, the narrower your topic needs to be. Here are some suggestions for narrowing and defining your topic:
- Is there a specific subset of the topic you can focus on?
- Is there a cause and effect relationship you can explore?
- Is there an unanswered question on the subject?
- Can you focus on a specific time period or group of people?
Describe and develop your topic in some detail. Try filling in the blanks in the following sentence, as much as you can:
I want to research ____(what/who)____
and ____(what/who)____
in ____(where)____
during ____(when)____
because ____(why)____.
Keep in mind: a topic that is too narrow or too broad can be difficult to research. If you need more help figuring out how to narrow or even broaden your topic, check out this table below.
Narrow or Broaden a Topic
| Narrow your topic | Broaden your topic |
|---|---|
|
Is your topic too broad?
|
Is your topic too narrow?
|
|
Example: "Fashion" is a topic too big to cover in detail in one research assignment. |
Example: "How legalizing marijuana would affect crime rates in the United States" might be a question that is too new a question. There may not yet be enough research on this topic. |
|
Consider these questions:
|
Consider these questions:
|
This information was adapted from CT State Norwalk's Mastering the Art of Library Research Guide.
Find Background Information
- In Context: Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new window
Opposing Viewpoints offers material to support differing views to help develop critical thinking skills on thousands of current social topics in the forms of primary source documents, statistics, websites and multimedia. Find overviews, news, and opinions on hundreds of today's important social issues, including racism, capital punishment, global warming, and voting rights with reference sources, newspaper and magazine articles, scholarly journals, court cases, government documents, viewpoints, maps, images, audio, video and websites.
- Business Insights This link opens in a new window
Gale Business: Insights empowers users with the necessary tools to research and effectively interpret international business topics. Access more than 430,000 detailed company profiles with company financial data, in-depth country overviews, and comprehensive industry profiles to stay current with the ever-evolving business landscape.
Using the Databases
One option for developing or exploring topics in Advertising is to explore the topic page of Opposing Viewpoints. You can find the advertising option by scrolling down to Browse Issues and select Business and Economics.
Once you select Business and Economics, a list of topics within this subject will be displayed in alphabetical order. Advertising is in the first column.
The topic pages contain an overview of the topic, which can be used to explore the background of advertising.
The different content types you can find from this topic page include:
a. Featured Viewpoints: quick essays highlighting differing opinions within the topic, handpicked by Gale
b. Viewpoints: more opinions on the topic
c. References: Overviews of the topic
d. Statistics and Infographics: Graphs, charts and data to support your research
e. Multimedia: Pictures, videos, podcasts, and audio
f. News and Magazines: Recent coverage and in-depth analysis
g. Academic Journals: Scholarly articles written by scholars in the field, often peer-reviewed
Once you choose a type of source or choose to look at all article types, to the right is an option to limit your search. One option that can be helpful is Search Within. For example, if you would like to choose Social Media Advertising Strategies, you can type in Social Media to get results that mention social media within the subject of advertising .
Alternatively, some subjects will have specific subject tags already linked on the website. If you select Subjects, a list of available subjects will be listed or you can type in a potential subject to see if the tag is a available.
Another great resource is Business Insight, which is similar to Opposing Viewpoints in that it has its own section related to advertising. You can get to the advertising section by scrolling down to the Research by Topic section and selecting Advertising.
You will then be able to see all the content available in this section, and you will have the option to limit by specific content type.
The content types available in Business Insights include:
- Academic Journal Articles: Scholarly articles written by scholars in the field, often peer-reviewed
- News & Magazine Articles: Recent news and media coverage
- Market Research Reports: Information about the industry's competitive landscape, industry trends and outlook
- References: An overview of the topic
- Trade Journal Articles: Articles published in trade specific journals
- Case Studies
- Videos
Once you choose a specific content type or choose to look at all content types, to the right is an option to limit your search. One option that can be helpful is, Search Within. For example, if you would like to choose Social Media Advertising Strategies, you can type in Social Media to get results that mention social media within the subject of advertising .
Alternatively, some subjects will have specific subject tags already linked on the website. If you select Subjects a list of available subjects will be listed or you can type in a potential subject to see if the tag is available.
