ENGL 127 Research Writing: Social Sciences (Pittser)

This research guide is for students enrolled in Lina Pittser's English 127: Research Writing with a focus on Family, Gender, and Sexuality

Explore Topic Ideas in the Social Sciences

Source: " English 127: Explore Topic Ideas " by Holman Library is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Use resources below this video to find topic exploration tools.

Browse Topic Ideas in Library Databases & Online

Browse the academic encyclopedia collection GVRL for good topic ideas

Strategy 1: 

Type in a broad idea, such as masculinity, intersectionality, family, or criminal justice and browse the list of titles and topics returned.

  • Select Subjects from the filters on the right and browse the list of related and subtopics. 
  • Open articles to explore possible ideas for your research project.
    • Notice the encyclopedia title the article is in. That may give you an indication of its focus.
    • Remember to keep a Social Science focus.
Strategy 2:

Type in a more focused search and browse the results for ideas. For ex: incarceration AND families OR children.

Strategy 3:

Click on Gale eBooks at the top of the database page. This takes you to the encyclopedia level. Limit to Social Science on the left and then browse titles and ideas there.

Click on images below to enlarge them.

Strategy 1:

GVRL - explore subtopics

Strategy 2:

GVRL-incarceration AND families OR children

Strategy 3: 

Social Sciences Subject Browse in GVRL

  • Browse CQ Researcher, a library database of thorough, well-researched reports on a wide range of current topics, for ideas for your quarter-long research project.
  • CQ Researcher is set up so that it starts with broad topics and then, as you click on topics, it leads down to more specific topic reports
    • Even if a report is not current enough for your purposes, browsing topics is still useful for generating ideas.
    • CQ archives are also useful for historical info on a topic.

CQ Browse by Topic Personal and Family Relations

  • In Opposing Viewpoints, you have the option to look at larger, broad topics. Instead of searching the large search box at top, scroll down to see the list of issues, or topics. 

(Click to enlarge image)

screenshot of database page showing how to choose a broad topic to be shown a list of related narrow topics

  • Other Relevant Current Issues Databases 
  • Explore resources below for some great current issues in the social sciences. This is just a sampling of sources.

Explore Topics Online

Google Web Search