1. Selecting a topic • Make sure that the topic you pick: • addresses your instructor's assignment. • is manageable and narrowly defined, one that can be effectively presented within the parameters of the assignment. • touches your life in a significant way and that you have a natural interest in. • allows you to bring insight to the situation and enlighten others. • has not been overly written about by countless other students. • lends itself to questions. Source: http://iws.ohiolink.edu/~sg-ysu/topic.html

2. Finding a topic in Bilingual Education:Using an online database • STEP 1 • Browse through the titles of articles in an online database such as Academic Search Elite • Type in “Bilingual Education” Result: More than 700 articles. That’s too many. Narrow it down!

3. Finding a topic in Bilingual Education:Using an online database • STEP 2 • Narrow the all-inclusive term, “Bilingual Education” by typing in the term, “Teaching” • Now you have around 120 articles dealing with “Teaching in the Bilingual school setting ” from which to find a topic • If that is still too many, narrow by using the term, California. • Now you only have to wade through 20 articles dealing with “Teaching in a Bilingual School setting in California.”

4. Finding a topic in Bilingual Education:Using an online database • STEP 3 • Now that you’ve got a manageable list of articles to find a research topic from: • Look through the titles to see if one interests you • Sometimes there are interesting titles mentioned in the reference or bibliography section of an article. You might just want to hunt these down in this database or the printed journals.

5. Finding a topic in Bilingual Education:Using an online database • STEP 4 • Once you find topic you feel an urge to research, make sure that: • You’ll be able to find other articles or books dealing with that subject matter; • Other articles dealing with the topic are in scholarly journals; • Other articles dealing with the topic are recent