Page 1: Defining your research topic

State your topic as a question in your own words. This will help you focus on the topic, and bring out any ambiguities, e.g:

Essay topic: 'Biblical themes in Rubens and his contemporaries'
Rephrased as questions: How did [Rubens and other] 17th century Dutch artists use biblical themes?

Now you have stated your topic as a question, you can identify the main concepts, e.g.:

Rubens - religious paintings
Flemish painting - 16th/17th century - religious

It helps to try and put these concepts in a hierarchical order:

Flemish painting
-- 16th/17th century
-- / -- Rubens / Rubens' contemporaries
-- / -- / -- Religious paintings

That way, you can easily move one level up if the search for the narrower topic does not result in anything; or, if the more general term generates too many hits, you can narrow your search down further.

Link to this page: http://www.richmond.ac.uk/s/974.aspx