English for Speakers of Other Languages Research Guide (ELL-095): Getting Started

The library website is the portal to all the resources & services available through the library.  Explore it using the link below.

The library orientation is a self-guided audio tour of the library + a tour of the library website.

Choosing a topic can be the most challenging part of an assignment.

• Choose a topic that interests you and will sustain your interest
• Be flexible--the topic might need to be modified (narrowed or broadened) depending on the information available
• Keep the topic manageable:
  • narrow and focused enough to be interesting, but
  • broad enough to find enough information for the assignment
• Narrow your topic by:
  • geographic region
  • culture
  • time frame
  • event or aspect
  • discipline or subject or
  • person or group
• Browse through your text book for ideas
• Browse interesting subject sections in the reference collection for topic ideas
• Identify the location of interesting subjects using the Library of Congress System link below
• Read a general encyclopedia article on your topic
• Read an article in a specialized encyclopedia on the subject

These two current issues databases are great resources for choosing a topic because they provide a browsable topic list:

Other resources