Communications Design

Selecting a topic is commonly considered to be among the first major steps of any research project, but it is important to remember that choosing a topic often involves some preliminary research to assess its scope or potentiality. In other words, choosing a topic is research!

Below are some suggestions to help you with this process.

Get inspired
Review course materials (textbooks, assigned/suggested readings, presentations, etc.) for potential directions. When you find something that interests you and seems like a good fit for your project goals, do some preliminary research. Search the Web, encyclopedias, and the Libraries' catalog.

Take notes
As you begin to develop your topic, take notes for your future self. This could mean jotting down intriguing concepts related to your topic or building an informal bibliography of articles and authors' names to return to. This will aid you throughout your research process, and your future self will thank you!

Choose a topic you are genuinely interested in.
You will be investing time and brain power into this project or assignment, and choosing something of interest to you may make the experience more fulfilling.

Read (and reread) the assignment guidelines.
Knowing what is expected of your final product can help you in refining your topic. A semester-long assignment will most likely expect a deeper analysis than a weekly assignment, meaning you'll have more time to explore your topic.

Hooray, you've chosen a topic! Now, you are ready to start looking for sources that can support your research. 

Before you start searching for those materials, you will need to brainstorm keywords related to your topics to use in your searches. Remember, keywords are the building blocks of search!

Suggestions for starting your keyword bank:

• Gather background information, which will give you some key words to start with, and make your research a little easier. Check out encyclopedias (including Wikipedia), textbooks, and keywords present in scholarly articles. 
• Brainstorm other search terms: think of synonyms, or more technical terms, or official language vs. colloquial language. 
• Think of some narrower search terms to get even more specific and some broader words in case you aren't finding much.
• Think about what ideas and terms are related to your subject that might also be helpful.
• Ask a generative AI product (Google Gemini, for example) to generate a list of keywords related to your topic. Not all of them will be worth exploring, but you may find some terms you hadn't previously thought of!
• Even when you've got a good keyword bank started, keep adding to it! If you find a good article or book, look at the data record to see what other terms and subjects are used to describe it.

Now that you have a solid list of keywords to draw from, you are ready to start searching!

Research & Discover
If you're looking for scholarly sources, the Libraries' Research & Discover is a great place to start. Research & Discover search will give you results for articles, streaming video, DVDs, zines, print books, and ebooks. 

You can use the search filters to limit your search results based on type (ex: articles, books), publication year, and language. 

Types of Searches:

• Basic Search or Broad Search
  Search for information using the single most important term related to your topic. This is a good search method to use in the early stages of your research. Use this type of search when looking for basic background information. 
   
• Advanced Search or Specific Search
  Search for information by combining key concepts using the keywords you have brainstormed. Each concept or word should be separated by the word "AND", or combined using the advanced search features of the catalog or database. Use this kind of search when looking for specific evidence related to your topic.
   

Search Tips
Our catalog and many of our databases recognize certain words or punctuation in order to best interpret your search. Use the operators and symbols below to make your search as powerful as possible!

• use AND in between search terms to ensure both words are included in your results
  Example: design AND nostalgia
• use OR for more results, indicating that results should include either word
  Example: design OR illustration
• use NOT if you want to exempt a word from your results
  Example: design NOT interior
• use quotation marks "_" to isolate phrases, indicating that results should consider the words together
  Example: "white space", "package design"
• use the wildcard * to get all versions of a word by placing a strategic wildcard wherever you'd like to enhance flexibility. This one is tricky to explain, so see examples below!
  Example: sustainab* returns sustainability and sustainable