Remember the research process is not linear. You will inevitable move back and forth between focusing your topic, research, and writing before completing your assignment.
Watch the Focus Your Research Topic to discover how to do background research and use it to brainstorm a topic, and utilize the 5Ws framework to consider the various aspects of your topic that you can then focus your research on.
A mind map can you help you visually brainstorm and explore a topic. Write down all sub-topics of your topic. Each note is a sub-topic, and with background research start adding more details, especially to the sub-topics that peak your interest most. Keep note of links and sources you find when you do background research and add them to your mind map. Once you see your mind map in full, you can start to visually see where your focus and direction of your topic is heading. You can draw a mind map with pencil or pen. Or try digital tools like Padlet or Miro.
