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We will be brief. If a topic is not assigned, choose one that
interests you, and
can be researched with reasonable thoroughness in the allotted time.
Topics such as censorship, the environment, and sexual harassment obviously impinge on our lives, and it may well be that one such topic is of especial interest to you. But the scope of these topics makes researching them potentially overwhelming. Type the word censorship into an Internet search engine, and you will be referred to millions of information sources.
This brings us to our second point — a manageable topic. Any of the previous topics would need to be narrowed substantially before you could begin searching in earnest. Similarly, a topic such as the causes of World War II can hardly be mastered in a few weeks or argued in a ten-page paper. It is simply too big.
You can, however, write a solid paper analyzing, evaluating, and arguing for or against General Eisenhower’s views on atomic warfare. What were they, and when did he hold them? (In his books written in 1948 and 1963 Eisenhower says that he opposed the use of the bomb before Hiroshima and that he argued with Secretary of War Henry Stimson against dropping it, but what evidence supports these claims? Was Eisenhower attempting to rewrite history in his books?) Eisenhower’s own writings and books and other information sources on Eisenhower will, of course, be the major sources for a paper on this topic, but you will also want to look at books and articles about Stimson and at publications that contain information about the views of other generals, so that, for instance, you can compare Eisenhower’s view with Marshall’s or MacArthur’s.
Spend a little time exploring a topic to see if it will be interesting and manageable by taking one or more of these approaches:
Do a Web search on the topic. Though you may not use any of the sites that turn up, you can quickly put your finger on the pulse of popular approaches to the issue by scanning the first page or two of results to see what issues are getting the most attention.
Plug the topic into one of the library’s article databases. Again, just by scanning titles you can get a sense of what questions are being raised.
Browse the library shelves where books on the topic are kept. A quick check of the tables of contents of recently published books may give you ideas of how to narrow the topic.
Ask a librarian to show you where specialized reference books on your topic are found. Instead of general encyclopedias, try sources like these:
CQ Researcher
Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics
Encyclopedia of Bioethics
Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice
Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics
Talk to an expert. Members of the faculty who specialize in the area of your topic might be able to spell out some of the most significant controversies around a topic and may point you toward key sources.