Before you begin searching for books or journal articles on your topic, you need to narrow your HD FS topic by considering these three questions:
1. Who is the focus of my research topic?
Example: adolescents, pre-teens, teens, etc.
2. What is the status, illness, or phenomenon I am searching for?
Example: eating disorders, alcoholism, drug usage, memory skills, etc
3. What do I want to focus on within this subject?
Example: treatment options, socio-economic factors, prevalence, etc.
Why is it important to narrow my topic?
If you can answer the above questions, then you will have the concepts (or terms) which you will use to search the databases. Because there are nearly hundreds of thousands of articles on nearly every topic, you need to be specific in your searches so that your are not bombarded with too many results.
See more about picking your topic from the LibGuide at Son Jose State Library.
