Choosing a Topic

• Select a broad subject area, such as foreign affairs, adolescent psychology,or environmental protection.
• Choose a topic within the subject area that is
• interesting to you.
• not too broad - with hundreds of books and articles written about it, as in the examples below:
• AIDS, drug abuse, South Africa, Civil War
• not too narrow - with nothing or only one or two articles written about it, as in the examples below:
• the effect of drug abuse on the athletic performance of 18-year-old hockey players in Argentina
• a comparison of the marketing strategies of two barber shops in Harrisonburg, VA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• Identify the main concepts of your topic as shown below.

Topic: Does smoking in teenagers affect social relationships?
Main concepts:
1. Smoking
2. Teenagers
3. Social relationships
• Generate a list of search terms for each concept as in the example below:

Main Concepts and search terms:
1. Smoking
• smoking
• tobacco use
2. Teenagers
• teenagers
• adolescents
• adolescence
3. Social relationships
• friendships
• dating
• social relationships
• interpersonal relationships