Do Some Background Reading
Now that you have some topic ideas, learn more by doing some background reading.
Encyclopedias are a great place to see how a topic is organized, what specialized terms are used, and to get more ideas about aspects of the topic that may interest you. The library has many different subject encyclopedias, both in print and online, that you can use. However, Wikipedia will also work for most topics. You won't use an encyclopedia as one of your sources but it's a great way to see how a topic is broken down and to find keywords you can use later to search for sources.
Here is the beginning of the Wikipedia article on Racism. The highlighted words include similar ideas, such as prejudice and discrimination, and some aspects of the topic such as stereotypes, segregation, xenophobia, and othering.
Now it's your turn. Type your topic into the search box at the top right of the page below, then write down any terms and questions that occur to you as you read through the article. You will use those terms to write your question and later to search for scholarly sources.
