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Wellesley College Research Guides

WRIT 166: Say Less, Do More: How Communities Are Built

Welcome!

Welcome to the research guide for WRIT 166! Use this as a starting point for your research in this class. If you would like to talk to me about finding or citing sources for this class, schedule a meeting with your librarian.

Choosing a Research Topic

Start by brainstorming some potential topics to explore further.

  • Look through your syllabus or textbook for themes, concepts, or ideas that interest you, even if you haven't covered them in class yet.
  • Search the topic or a broad theme from the course in Google, SuperSearch, or a library database. What aspects of the topic jump out at you or resonate with you?
  • Think about your major or your hobbies. Do any of your personal interests overlap with the topic of the class?

 

Adapted from "Choosing Your Research Topic," University of Texas Libraries. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Generic License.

Now that you have a potential topic in mind, find out a little more about it to make sure it will work for you.

  • Use some of the resources on this page to find  background information and get a general overview of the topic.
  • Sometimes what you find is not what you expected. Make sure the topic still sounds interesting, since you'll be spending a lot of time reading and writing about it.

 

Adapted from "Choosing Your Research Topic," University of Texas Libraries. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Generic License.

Now search SuperSearch or a library database to see if journalists or scholars have written about your topic in the popular press or academic journals. You can use the filters to limit to particular source types (e.g., news, scholarly articles, books) or publication dates.
 

Adapted from "Choosing Your Research Topic," University of Texas Libraries. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Generic License.

Finally, you'll need to find the right scope for your topic. If it is too broad or too narrow, you may have difficulty covering it adequately in the length assigned for your research project.

  • Too broad - if you found too many results when testing the topic, you might need to choose a specific aspect to focus on. Try looking back in your background information for particular details that interest you.
  • Too narrow - if you had trouble finding any relevant information in a library database, think more broadly about the topic and what interests you. What are the larger concepts or ideas that your topic falls under?

 

Adapted from "Choosing Your Research Topic," University of Texas Libraries. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Generic License.

Student Library Research Awards

 

Deadline for the 2026 Awards is February 13, 2026

Win up to $1000!

These awards were created to reward those students who take the time to develop a thoughtful, methodical, and scholarly approach to the research needed for their papers and projects, as well as to encourage students to develop good research techniques.


Find out more at the
Student Library Research Awards site

Subjects: Writing