 Welcome to the BC Library's Core Skills Tutorial on Focusing Your Research. This video will show how you can develop and focus your research project by exploring course readings, library resources, and the Internet. You might begin with a text your professor has assigned, highlighting important ideas and looking for a topic that interests you. Keep a list of concepts and terms that pique your curiosity. You can use this list to generate search terms when you go to the course catalog, the databases, or the Internet. Your first searches may not generate the results you would hope for. Don't be discouraged. Add and subtract terms and try various combinations. Scanning the titles, subject tags, and descriptions of your results can also give you ideas for new search terms. This kind of exploration is part of the research process, and it's cyclical, not linear. You'll move back and forth between your list of terms, research tools, and your research question. Encyclopedias and bibliographies can be very helpful at the early stages of your research. For example, if you are interested in college curricula, you might look into the Oxford Bibliography on Education. Entries related to higher education may provide you with helpful key terms and concepts. Along the left side under in this article, you can browse the contents of each entry, which include overviews and lists of resources. If the idea of academic freedom intrigues you, click on this heading and scan the summary and lists of resources. These may provide you with additional key words, phrases, and ideas. Remember to regularly update your list of concepts and terms, and to use these ideas to refine your research question. This kind of exploratory research works with any search tool. For example, Google Scholar may give you additional ideas for focusing your research. When you find a relevant source, look at its abstract, summary, or table of contents. These may help you add to your list of search terms and further sharpen your focus. No matter what your initial research question is, it's important to be flexible. To be willing to let your results help you refine that question, and to approach the whole process with a spirit of exploration. And remember that you are not alone. Your professors and research librarians are happy to help, and they can save you a lot of time and frustration. Seek their advice early in the process, and your research will certainly be more productive.