Choosing a Topic for a Paper or Speech

1. Come to the main library (Mullins Library).
2. Find a database or an index which relates to your field, either general or interdisciplinary in nature, such as ProQuest Direct or Ebsco Academic Search Premier, on the Top Ten Databases list, or one in print, like the Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature,
3. Scan the pages of printed volumes, or search playfully in an electronic index until you see a topic or topics that interest you or fit the assignment or both!
4. Choose a subject that has many references under it; war, religion and politics are always "favorites." Environmental issues are often well covered, too--for example, endangered species, like the giant panda, raise sympathy.
5. Check InfoLinks to see if we have the journals or magazines that the references show. Some will be on the shelves in the stacks; others will be available electronically. Some won't be available here but are available through interlibrary loan (also known as ILLiad, from the name of the software system)

If you were assigned a topic, but the general subject that you were assigned doesn't interest you, find an aspect within the topic that does. For example, if you are assigned a paper on business ethics, but you are more interested in organizations like the American Red Cross, you could write more specifically about ethical questions that arise for managers of non-profit organizations.

Some popular topics have been "done to death," including: AIDS, gun control, abortion and capital punishment. However, if you can come up with a new spin on an old topic (the ethical implications of giving the death penalty to prison inmates who infect pregnant women with AIDS??), feel free!

 Ask at the Reference Desk if you need help.