Skip to Main Content

History Subject Guide — How to Define a Topic

This guide discusses library resources that are available for undergraduate and graduate students in the History Department at UConn.

Defining a Topic

Your topic needs to be focused enough so that you can research it and write about it in the number of pages required by your assignment. Term papers are often 10-15 pages. If the class is the American Civil War, you cannot cover the entirety of the war in that amount of space. Phrasing your topic as a research question can be helpful. For example, if you are interested in looking at the role of women in the war effort, a possible research question could be "How did women on the homefront contribute to the war effort?" The document below is a worksheet that can help you formulate your topic as a research question. There is also an explanation and video about concept maps, which can be useful in thinking about your topic and narrowing it from a broad idea to something more manageable for a research paper.

Research Question Generator

What is a Concept Map?

A concept map is a tool you can use to define and narrow your topic.  It allows you to visualize the relationships between different concepts.  For example, if you are writing a term paper on the American Civil War, but you aren't sure what aspect of the war you would like to focus on, creating a concept map can help you think about the topic possibilities.  Watch the video below to see how to create your own concept map!