Watch: How to choose a research paper topic:

Finding Inspiration

Inspiration can come from:

• your courses, textbooks or course readings
• news, newspaper, movie, tv show or social media like YouTube or TikTok
• a job or campus group you are on 
• your family or friends
• or an event in your life

Background research

Start with some background research to learn about important facts, keywords, people, etc. The goal of this step is to learn more about the topic and to take quick notes. Since most of what you find in this step won’t be cited, you don’t need to try to find "good quotes” or evidence. Here are some great places to start:

• Textbooks or course readings
• Wikipedia or other online encyclopedias from the UMN Libraries
• Google or other search tools
• YouTube, TED Talks, podcasts
• Talk to friends or someone more familiar with the topic 

For example, we are interested in superheroes. Really. Let's peek at a Wikipedia article to get some ideas.