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Topic Development
- 1. Topic Selection and Development
- 2. Topic Selection Most courses you have the luxury of choosing your own paper topic within the discipline, some courses you do not. Some things to keep in mind are: Choose something of interest to you. Make sure your topic is manageable. Choose a project you can finish in the time allotted. Choose your approach: analytical, argumentative, narrative, chronological, humorous, serious. No matter what, have a clear understanding of what your topic is. You may have to fine tune your topic from time to time, but never lose sight of what your paper is about.
- 3. Topic Development Step One: Choose your area of interest Step Two: Choose you area of focus Step Three: Refine to a more specific research question. Step Four: Think about how you are going to approach your topic Step Five: Think about the types of information you need to answer your research question.
- 4. Where to Find Background Information & Terminology Subject Dictionaries Dictionary of Environment & Conservation Dictionary of Ecology Available online from WSU Libraries Dictionary of Water & Waste Management Available Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Environmental Change GE10 .E536 2001 McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Environmental Science GE10 .M378 2003 Subject Encyclopedias & Thesauri Encyclopedia of Energy Encyclopedia of Environmental Science & Engineering TD9 .E5 2006 v. 1-2 Encyclopedia of Global Change: Environmental Change & Human Society Encyclopedia of Water Science Available online from WSU Libraries Multilingual Thesaurus of Environmental Terms Z695.1.E62 M85x 1997
- 5. Where to find Articles: Some Subject-Specific Databases Political Science Congressional Lexis-Nexis CQ Researcher Online ICPSR Left Index PAIS International Worldwide Political Science Abstracts History America History and Life: US & Canadian History Historical Abstracts: World history, except US & Canada Historical Statistics of the United States History Cooperative JSTOR
- 6. Selected Databases by Subject Science ACS Journal Search (Chemistry) ARIBIB (Astronomy) BIOSIS (Life Sciences & Biology) Fish & Fisheries World (Ichtyology & fisheries) Index to American Botanical Literature (Botany) SciFinder Scholar Earth & Environmental Sciences AGRICOLA GeoRef ENDEX Energy Citations
- 7. Web Resources Style Guides WSU Libraries Handouts: Style Guides http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/electric/search/category_results.asp?loc=handouts&cat=style WSU Libraries Virtual Reference Shelf: Citing Sources http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/RefShelf/citing.html APA Style Tips: http://www.apastyle.org/styletips.html Chicago Manual of Style Online: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html Evaluating Information Resources UC Berkeley: Critical Evaluation of Resources http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/instruct/guides/evaluation.html Cornell University: Critically Analyzing Information Sources http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/skill26.htm
- 8. Karenann Jurecki 131 Owen meebo/kjurecki [email_address]