From Topic to Question
Once you have a general idea of what to research, you need to decide what question you'd like your project to answer. What do you want your audience to know? What question would warrant an interesting answer? While formulating your question, keep this in mind:
Choose a question that can be answered by presenting evidence. Avoid appeals to opinion or sentiment.
Bad Example: "Why are The Beatles such a good band?"
Better Example: "What factors led to the commercial success of The Beatles?"
Formulate an open question. Avoid questions that can be answered with a yes or no.
Bad Example: "Should the United States devote more government funding to cancer research?"
Better Example: "What can be accomplished by directing more government funding to cancer research?"
"Size" your question appropriately. Avoid overly broad questions.
Bad Example: "How do Shakespeare's female characters wield influence over others?"
Better Example: "How do the female characters of A Midsummer Night's Dream wield influence over others?"
[see the Make It Manageable section of this guide for more help in narrowing your question]
From Question to Keywords
After deciding on a question, you will need to start gathering sources. This entails turning your research question into keywords that you can enter into a database or search engine.
1. Identify the concepts
Look for the major nouns and verbs in your question. Avoid vague words like "benefits", "advantages", "effects", etc.
Example: In "How do companies effectively market their products to teenagers?", there are three concepts: companies, marketing (of products), and teenagers
2. Create lists of similar words
Use synonyms as well as related words.
Example: When researching the concept of "marketing", related keywords include "ads", "advertising", "commercials", and "sales"
3. Put it all together
Group similar concepts within parentheses and separate them with OR. Group the concepts with AND. Use quotation marks around phrases. Doing all of this will allow you to search for concepts that may be described in different way by different writers. You can find more suggestions in our Search Tips guide.
Example: (marketing OR ads OR advertising) AND (television OR "social media") AND teenagers
4. Enter your keywords into a database or search engine
You can find many good databases on the BU Libraries site. You can limit this list by subject and type.
