Get started with research

There are many ways to generate topic ideas for an assignment:

• Meet with your instructor. They can clarify assignment requirements and help you generate, develop, and provide examples of suitable topics.    
• Talk to your classmates. Brainstorm ideas and figure out what interests you. 
• Think about what you are studying in other classes. Are there ways to intersect or relate ideas with or in relation to another class?
• Brainstorm! Create a mind map of keywords, ideas, items, subjects, and questions you have about the topic. 
• Browse! Look at news articles, textbooks, and reference materials.  
• Draw on your own experiences. What paradigms or phenomenons have you noticed in your previous workplaces, in your social groups, or in other experiences? Are you interested in examining that paradigm or phenomenon more? 

Once you've got an idea for your research, you'll want to define your research topic a bit further. As a rule, your topic should not be too broad or too narrow in scope- there's a sweet spot right in the middle! Check out Bow Valley College's "Forming Questions" guide for some examples of topics that are too narrow or too broad, and how to fix them. 

You will also want to make sure that you understand the boundaries or scope of the assignment- whether you are restricted to certain resources like peer-reviewed journal articles, or whether you can also use grey literature like government documents. 

It is often useful to do some exploratory research, to ensure that you can find relevant information without being overwhelmed by the number of search results you get. Google can be a good place to get grounded, as you'll find news articles and top hits for a given search. These will provide you with a good overview of your topic.

However, Google searches alone will not provide you with everything you need to support your academic papers. Information comes in a variety of packages; scholarly books, journal articles, and conference proceedings are typically among the most valued, but there is also grey literature, written by subject experts and published by governments or research groups. Trade journals, written for practitioners rather than scholars, can offer a perspective not included in scholarly literature. Refer to our Grey Literature guide for more information on different types of literature. 

The video tutorial below will provide you with an example of an exploratory search to define one's topic. 

Once you've got an idea for your topic, searching for background information helps you to get an overview and determine questions or perspectives you might want to explore.

Google can be a good place to get grounded, as you will find news articles and top hits for your given search. These will provide you with a good overview of your topic. The boxes on this page offer specific tips on using Google for preliminary searching.

Depending on your topic, you will likely have to look in a variety of places to find what you need. Google searches alone will not provide you with everything you need to support your academic papers. 

Information comes in a variety of packages, including:

• books
• journal articles
• conference proceedings
• government documents
• policy briefs
• reports
• white papers
• laws and legislation
• statistics and data
• newspapers
• blogs
• video sharing sites (e.g. YouTube)

Scholarly books, journal articles and conference proceedings are typically the most valued types of academic publishing. Academics and students alike are usually required to cite these kinds of sources when writing academic papers. Depending on your topic, though, other document types can be useful as well. Grey literature, for example, written by subject experts and published by governments or research groups, can be very relevant and reliable. Trade journals, written for practitioners rather than scholars, offer a perspective not included in scholarly literature.