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Questia is an online library that’s chock full of books and articles. I’m talking thousands of resources. At Questia you’ll find a wide selection of scholarly journals, you know, the ones that your instructors prefer you use. The resources on Questia have been reviewed and chosen for inclusion by professional librarians. This bonus feature ensures that you can cite them knowing that there won’t be any issues with credibility.

What topics do you want to write on? You’ll find them all here. How about:

• Money and banking
• International trade
• Corporate finance
• Outsourcing
• Intrapreneuring

What about finding what you need? After all, you’re on a tight schedule and you can’t spend all night combing through thousands of items. No problem, you’re going to love the powerful search function that will save you time as it helps you zero in on that perfect book or article.

Small business, big resource

The Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) are located both online and locally where you live. SBDCNet is an information clearinghouse of the U.S. Small Business Administration. The purpose of the site is to provide business research assistance to the SBDC advisors and their small business clients.

The site’s Bootstrapping 101 Blog has plenty of easy-to-read posts such as this one from Bob Reiss titled, “Business Incubators Can Be a Start-Up’s Best Friend.” In the post, Reiss applies a friendly approach to explain how business incubation jumpstarts the development of a new company by providing advice, consulting, and technical assistance.

“Incubators are physical plants that primarily house the offices of start-up companies. They will rent you flexible leases, which can allow you to expand or shrink your space quickly. Rents vary by incubator, but most often are lower than the market rates at the outset,” Reiss explained.

Naked Capitalism

For insightful commentary on the state of the economy you will want to check out the Naked Capitalism blog where you can find information and opinion parsed into digestible chunks for your enjoyment and education. You’ll be able to look over the shoulder of contributors like Lynn Parramore, co-founder of Recessionwire and founding editor of New Deal 2.0.

In an April 5, 2012 post titled, “Capitalism’s Dirty Secret: Corporations Don’t Create Jobs, They Destroy Them,” Parramore explains how American corporations are not living up to their reputation as job creators.

“The U.S. Department of Commerce found that from 2000 to 2009, U.S. transnational corporations, which employ about 20 percent of all American workers, cut their domestic employment by 2.9 million even as they boosted their overseas workforce by 2.4 million. The result was an enormous loss of jobs nationally, as well as a net loss globally,” Parramore said.

Other resources

• The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) [www.bea.gov]: Statistical information on the U.S. economy.
• The Tax Policy Center of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution: Produces information and reports on current and emerging tax policy issues. One of the latest entries is a report titled, “How Big is the Federal Government?”
• The U.S. Congressional Budget Office (CBO) [www.cbo.gov]: Produces independent, nonpartisan, timely analysis of economic and budgetary issues to support the Congressional budget process.
• Publications USA: The Federal Citizen Information Center offers important consumer information and publications to help you make important life decisions.
• The Bureau of Labor Statistics [www.bls.gov]: The principal Federal agency responsible for measuring labor market activity, working conditions, and price changes in the economy.
• Service Core of Retired Executives (SCORE): A nonprofit association, supported by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and staffed by volunteers, delivers services online and at events held locally across the U.S.
• The Small Business Administration (SBA): The SBA helps small businesses find the resources they need to start and grow. Programs and services are available both online and at local offices.

There are quite a few websites dedicated to providing business and finance information, and happily, many of them are produced by the U.S. government, which means that they’re free to use. Soon you’ll have all the information and interpretation you’ll need in order to create a stellar research project.

It’s easy to get caught up in something that you’re passionate about, but if that means discussing the broadest of topics, such as simply “Barack Obama,” then you’re never going to be able to dive deeply into anything specific. You’ll only be skating over the top of a hundred concepts covering his early years, government experience, and his presidency. Instead, begin with that research subject and try to find one specific issue that you can develop into a solid thesis. Consider writing about the impact of just one of the changes he’s made in office or perhaps the way one group has been affected by his presidency.

Chapter 3 of Schaum’s Quick Guide to Writing Great Research Papers explains the difference between a subject and a topic. “Recall that a subject of a research paper is the general content […] subjects are broad and general. The topic of a research paper, in contrast, is the specific issue being discussed.” Schaum then gives example that if your subject is “Animal Rights” you may make your topic “If zoos are cruel rather than educational” or “if testing medical procedures/drugs on animals should be increased or decreased.”

Looking for specific ideas to get your brain in gear? Questia has a section devoted to Research Topics broken into 14 major categories. Select one of these broad ideas and you’ll be connected straight to thousands of good research topics linked directly to the over 77,000 books and 4 million articles on our virtual shelves. Questia shows the most popular research topics in each category, making it easy to zero in on a great subject. Upon clicking a topic link, Questia pulls the most relevant books and articles for those topics. It also offers related books and articles you may not have considered. Looking through these may just spark some creativity and get you started on writing your research paper.

Some schools even offer suggestions of interesting research topics on their library or Writing Center websites. The topics page at Midway College gives an alphabetical list of topics and gives one suggestion of where to take those ideas.  Another excellent resource is the book 99 Jumpstarts to Research: Topic Guides for Finding Information on Current Issues. This book is intended to teach good research habits and offers readers search terms, food for thought, and background and statistics on 99 interesting research topics.

In a blog post called How to Choose Good Essay or Research Paper Topics, author Ishmael Ahab advises, “One thing that you can do is to browse at your old essays or research papers. Look for old topics that you can reinvent. You can also look for ideas on those old essays or research papers that were not given enough focus. Those ideas can be used as the main topic for your new essay or research paper.” Not everyone saves all of their old papers, of course, but you can brainstorm previous ideas that you’ve had for topics. Review these old, dusty ideas and reimagine them into a research topic that better suits your class’s focus and your since-developed academic abilities.

Once you’ve chosen a good research paper topic that you know can hold up to your own interrogation, the real research can begin. Have a look back at some of our other helpful blog posts for help with how to write a research paper:
Back to school tips: How to write a research paper
Top 10 mistakes when writing a research paper

Leave suggestions in the comments section below with your own methods for brainstorming topic ideas for research papers, projects, blog posts, etc.!

QUESTIA QUIZ

Narrowing down a subject, which is “broad and general” into a topic or “the specific issue being discussed”  makes it both manageable and arguable, says Laurie Rozakis. In Schaum’s Quick Guide to Writing Great Research Papers 2nd ed., (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007), 23, she suggests this approach for Shaping Your Ideas.

“Every time you narrow a subject into a topic, remember your boundaries and parameters: time, length, audience, and purpose,” says Rozakis. “Keep all other special considerations in mind as well. Always consider what you can handle within the restrictions you have been given – as well as what you would most enjoy writing about for several weeks or months. Follow these guidelines:

1. Start with a general subject that interests you and fits the parameters of the assignment.
2. Phrase the subject as a question.
3. Brainstorm subdivisions of the subject to create topics.
4. Consult different sources for possible subtopics. Possibilities include the Internet, card catalog, reference books, magazines, friends, and the media.
5. Sift the ideas until you find one that suits the assignment, audience, and your preferences.
6. Write your final topic as a question.

Click here for topic-honing examples and other research paper tips from Rozakis. These ideas are sure to help you narrow your focus from broad subjects to specific topics when writing your papers.