 Hey there Bruins! Today your friends at the UCLA library are here to help you get started researching for your paper. Today's goals? Determining a variety of issues related to your topic and creating a concept map displaying the relationship between those issues. To start your concept map, draw a circle in the middle of your paper and write the main topic of your research paper. To keep your brainstorming organized, divide your paper into four quadrants. These quadrants will hold ideas related to social issues, economic issues, political issues, and scientific and technological issues associated with your topic. Now that your concept map is set up, start writing general questions related to each section. Draw circles branching off from the main topic and write your questions within them. For now, don't worry about writing very specific questions. These questions are meant to guide your research and can be brought. We will work to narrow them down later. Now that your preliminary questions are written, you have a chance to write more specific topics you're interested in researching. For example, you can expand on social issues by thinking about specific things people would have strong opinions on. Don't worry if you can't think of specifics for some of your questions. Areas of your concepts map that look more sparse, such as the technological and political quadrants for the one in this example, will tell you which topics you should do more research for. Also, topics that overlap in your concept map may direct you to an interesting idea and relationship you may want to analyze and include in your final paper. Now that you know how to start an organized brainstorm of your topic, use your research topic and create a concept map of your own. Looking for help with the next steps? Feel free to stop by at one of our many locations and set up a consultation.