 If you've ever been assigned a paper or project, you know that getting started is one of the hardest parts, especially if you have some freedom in your choice of topic. After all, the perfect topic doesn't just fall from the sky ready to go. In this video, you'll learn what makes a good research topic, how to conduct background research, and how to develop a specific and relevant research topic. Let's start by thinking about what makes a good research topic. First of all, your topic should ideally be something that interests you. After all, you'll be spending quite a bit of time with it while you're working on the assignment. In addition, an effective research topic should fit the requirements of the assignment. If your professor has asked you to write a paper on some aspect of Shakespeare's sonnets, a paper on the effects of climate change in the developing world wouldn't be okay. Finally, a good topic should be specific enough to be covered in the scope of the assignment. If you're assigned a five to seven page paper, you can't cover the entire topic of climate change, and you'll need to find a narrower aspect of the topic to write about. So how do you find a topic that fits all of these criteria? Instead of thinking of finding a great, pre-existing topic, let's think of developing or creating a great topic. Most of the time, you'll start with a topic that you're interested in, but that doesn't quite fit the scope of the assignment or is too broad, and then you'll develop it through background research and brainstorming. Let's work through an example. Say that I'm given an assignment to write a four to five page argumentative paper on a current issue related to higher education. If I don't already know a lot about current issues at colleges and universities, I'll probably get stuck. Here's where background research can come in handy. General Googling probably won't help much at this point since I don't even have an idea of what I want to write about. But there are some specific places I can go. One thing I can do is to browse major news sites like The New York Times and Wall Street Journal. These sources cover a wide range of subjects, including education, so I can find out more about current issues in this area. There are also library resources that can help. One of those is CQ Researcher, part of the CQ Press Electronic Library. To get to the library's homepage, choose the Collections tab and then Databases and then search for the database by name. This resource contains reports and major issues of our day, including education, so it's a great place to look for information on a topic related to higher education. You can browse through their list to find something that interests you and then read more about it. Once you find something that interests you, think about the scope of your paper. In four to five pages, I can't cover the entire topic of student debt, but I could cover a particular aspect of it like the effect of student debt on first-generation college students. Before I can launch into searching for sources for my paper, I probably should do some more reading to understand the topic a bit better and make sure that I'm looking at an aspect of it that works within the scope of my paper. At this stage, I can try googling my topic. Wikipedia is a great place to get background information, even if you can't use it as a source in your paper. Discovery Search, available through the library, is also a good choice and you might even find a source you could use in your paper. This process of doing background research to develop your topic is something you'll probably do more than once. You might start with one topic, read a little, change your mind, and try another. You might also start with a general idea of your topic and jump right into looking for background information in the news, CQ researcher, Wikipedia, and Discovery Search. This process of learning and brainstorming will help you develop a topic that interests you and fits the requirements of the assignment. If you get stuck when you're developing your topic, you can always ask a librarian for help. He or she can point you to resources that can help you develop your topic and answer other questions you have about conducting research.