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If possible, select a topic that interests you. If your instructor assigns a topic, make the most of it by finding something about it that interests you. Narrow the topic as much as possible.
For example, if I choose the topic of the Supreme Court I might be overwhelmed with the information that I find. Maybe I want to know about who the justices of the supreme court are, or maybe I want to look at cases about the First Amendment that the court has decided. I don't want to narrow it too much and look at one aspect of one specific case as I may not find enough information.
Explore your topic using a reference resource like an encyclopedia to learn more about the topic and find keywords for searching.
Once you have some background information about your topic, creating a research question will help narrow your focus on your topic. It will also help to determine keywords for searching the library catalog and/or databases. For example How does the electoral college work?
Think about the questions you want to answer. If you have been given a prompt, this can be very helpful. If not, think about how to fill in the following sentence.
I want to research ____(what/who)____
and ____(what/who)____
in ____(where)____
during ____(when)____
because ____(why)____.
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