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Education, Behavioral Science, and the Social World

Before diving in...

Narrow that topic down!  This is the part of the process we call "pre-search": scratching the surface of a large topic to uncover keywords, subtopics, and more.  It's much easier to write a paper on a narrowed topic, trust us.  Use the tools and suggestions below to dig into a large topic (ex: mental illness, homelessness, PTSD, and so forth) so that it is manageable.

Wikipedia as a PreSearch Tool

wikipedia logoIt's perfectly okay to look at a Wikipedia page to learn more about your topic when you're doing presearch, but you would not want to use this as a formal resource for your paper. What you can do is use Wikipedia's links and references to locate more authoritative and credible sources. In many cases you can find more authoritative resources, such as books and published articles from these references.

Search Wikipedia Now!

 

Related Words

Use this website to take your keyword searching to new levels: type in your topic and it will generate a word cloud with topics and terms related to yours.  By trying alternative keywords and related terms, you'll take your searches to new levels and discover more information. Click the elephant:

Related Words website's logo

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4000 Suisun Valley Road
Fairfield, CA 94534
(707) 864-7000
dividerVACAVILLE CENTER
2001 North Village Parkway
Vacaville, CA 95688
(707) 863-7836
dividerVALLEJO CENTER
545 Columbus Parkway
Vallejo, CA 94591
(707) 864-7292
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE
530 Hickam Ave., Bldg. 249
Travis Air Force Base, CA 94535
(707) 424-2431