Student Resources

NARROW your topic if it's too general for your project.

A couple of ways you can narrow your topic are:

• Focus on a particular aspect of your topic, such as:
  • Timeframe (the first year of the Civil War)
  • Category of people (plantation owners, slaves, factory workers, etc.)
  • Specific events related to your topic (specific Civil War battles)
  • Place (Memphis, the South, Appalachia, etc.)
• Add another topic to your original topic:
  • A couple narrowed topics about the Civil War might be "music and the Civil War" or "religion and the Civil War."

B R O A D E N your topic if it's too specific for your project. For instance, you might have trouble finding information about hazing in Southern fraternities.

So, expand your topic:

• Look for parallels and wider categories (peer pressure among college students)
• Choose an alternate focus (drug and alcohol use instead of hazing)
• Choose and alternate place (the entire United States instead of the South)
• Choose an alternate person or group (fraternities and sororities, young adults, etc.)