Choosing a Topic - Sports History - Taradash - Fall Research Paper

Explore Topics

Use these resources to find topics you're interested in and narrow down your ideas:

Infobase History Research Center This link opens in a new window
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Why search here?
Start here for historical background research! Covers U.S., ancient, and modern world history with primary sources, encyclopedias, timelines, images, maps, and helpful topic centers.
Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
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Why search here?
Use Credo Reference when starting your research to gather background information on any subject, access topic pages and encyclopedia articles, and develop ideas for your research topic.

The Digital Public Library of America

Why search here?
Discover 48,791,233 images, texts, videos, and sounds from across the United States.
What's included?
Primary source sets and online exhibitions for inspiration, or search for objects, documents, and more.

Moving from Topic to Research Question

A research topic is a (hopefully) narrow subject you are interested in learning more about.

A research question is the question you aim to investigate and answer in your paper.

Here are some tips from author Robert C. Williams' book The Historian's Toolbox: A Student's Guide to the Theory and Craft of History:

A research question might . . .

Ask how or why an event happened (causation, explanation)
Ask what the consequences were of a particular event
Discuss the intellectual origins of a particular idea
Ask what the cultural context of an event was
Ask whether or not an individual was responsible for a certain act
Ask about the social history of a political event
Quantify broad trends in a society at a particular time

Examples

Research topic: free Black business owners in New England in the time period before the Civil War
Research question: What were the key legal and social challenges faced by free Black business owners in pre-Civil War New England in building and sustaining their enterprises?

Mind Mapping

Follow along with this mind mapping exercise from the UCLA Powell Library to move from topic to potential research questions.