Choosing a topic
Picking a topic is research! Topics start very broad and then need to be narrowed down to a manageable size. For example, the broad topic for this assignment is a career; however, there are thousands of books, articles, and films about all types of careers. You will need to choose a recognized career that has background information as well as current information on what a person can do within that field of work. Think big, then narrow your focus. You can also choose to focus on gender or race, person or place, activity or movement. Try a variety of topics and see what kind of results you get. If you get very few results, change the topic and try again.
Check out this brief tutorial from North Carolina State University
Research Topics
Developing a research question is a process. To help with the process, look through the table of contents of your textbook for ideas. Find a topic that you are interested in learning more about. After you choose a broad topic, narrow it down to a specific geographical area, environmental issue, or economic development. Below are some suggestions:
Geographical Areas
- North America
- Latin America
- Oceania
- Africa
- Asia
- Europe
Environmental Issues
- Climate Change
- Pollution
- Urbanization
- Renewable Energy
- Population
- Natural Resources
Economic Development
- Agriculture
- Import/Export
- Population Planning
- Immigration/Emigration
- Transportation
- Manufacturing
Background Sources
Background sources provide established, reliable information on many topics. Using a subject encyclopedia to gather perspective and understanding of a topic allows you to choose which aspect of a topic you want to focus on and will lead you to sources appropriate for your research project.
Climate Change: An Encyclopedia of Science, Society, and Solutions by Publication Date: 2017-09-15Climate Change: An Encyclopedia of Science, Society, and Solutions combines entries describing Earth's variable climatic history, references to scientific literature, weather record data, and selected primary documents to present readers with a comprehensive account of global warming's effects worldwide.
Environmental Health in the 21st Century: From Air Pollution to Zoonotic Diseases by Environmental Health in the 21st Century: From Air Pollution to Zoonotic Diseases presents hundreds of encyclopedic entries written by expert researchers and practitioners, a history of environmental health, and interviews with subject experts that broadly survey the field of environmental health.
Encyclopedia of Global Population and Demographics by Publication Date: 2014-01-21This up-to-date and comprehensive encyclopedia focuses on the population in each of the 194 countries of the world. Emphasis is on the world's population at the end of the twentieth century and on predictions for the next fifty years.
Routledge Handbook of Climate Change and Society by Current material is used to highlight the global impact of this issue, and the necessity for multidisciplinary and global social science research and teaching to address the problem. The book is multidisciplinary and worldwide in scope, with contributors spanning specialisms including agro-forestry, economics, environmentalism, ethics, human geography, international relations, law, politics, psychology, sociology and theology.
Encyclopedia of Agriculture and Food Systems by Encyclopedia of Agriculture and Food Systems, Second Edition addresses important issues by examining topics of global agriculture and food systems that are key to understanding the challenges we face. The broad themes of food systems and people, agriculture and the environment, the science of agriculture, agricultural products, and agricultural production systems are covered in more than 200 separate chapters of this work.
Global Social Issues: an Encyclopedia by Nearly 150 in-depth, balanced, and thought-provoking articles cover a broad range of critically important topics: the environment, health, science, the media, ethnic conflicts, poverty, and immigration, to name just a few. Each original, signed article provides historical context as well as a thorough discussion and analysis of contemporary issues facing today's interconnected world.
Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender: Men and Women in the World's Cultures Topics and Cultures by The central aim of this encyclopedia is to give the reader a comparative perspective on issues involving conceptions of gender, gender differences, gender roles, relationships between the genders, and sexuality.
Companion to Urban and Regional Studies by Overview and timely coverage of the major issues, debates, and research topics in urban and regional studies Companion to Urban and Regional Studies offers an up-to-date view of the rapidly growing field, exploring a diversity of theoretical perspectives, current and emerging research, and critical global policy concerns.
The Global Water Crisis: A Reference Handbook by This book provides a broad overview of water, sanitation, and hygiene problems faced by both developing and developed nations around the globe and suggests how these problems can be solved by imaginative and innovative thinking.Human society depends on sufficient clean water.
