Tutorials

Struggling to select a topic for your research assignment? Here are practical strategies to brainstorm a topic and begin to develop a research question.

Covers strategies for developing an interesting and manageable research question by brainstorming and exploring resources. NOTE: works best in Firefox browser.

Many times, a good database search is just a matter of the right keywords. This covers how to develop keywords from a research question, and how to modify them for better results. NOTE: works best in Firefox browser.

How to find research guides by USC Libraries.

Students often say that getting started is the hardest part of the research process. This may be, in part, because whereas most of our education teaches convergent thinking strategies (developing answers to linear questions with fixed answers and solutions), the research process requires a kind of creative, or “divergent” kind of thinking, where we consider multiple potential solutions for an open-ended problem. This video explains how students can use divergent thinking to interpret an assignment creatively and select a meaningful, authentic topic of interest.