From Subject to Topic Text Links

Web Links
Chapter 1: Moving from Subject to Topic: Where Research Begins

Learn more about a regular activity:
To explore subjects of general interest, go to the home pages of HotBot at http://hotbot.lycos.com, WebCrawler at http://www.webcrawler.com, AltaVista at http://www.altavista.com, or some other search engine and peruse their directories of subjects.

Explore possibilities in academic subjects:
To consider subjects related to academic disciplines, go to the WWW Virtual Library at http://www.vlib.org for a fourteen-category set of links to specialized fields of study. Or consult the Academic Guide to the Internet at http://www.aldea.com/guides/ag/attframes2.html, particularly using the sidebar links to discipline-specific subjects.

Consider subjects introduced in your classes:
To explore subjects related to your classes, ask your instructors for the names of professional organizations (and their acronyms). Then search the Internet using the acronym, plus .org. The correlation is frequently clear: http://www.acsm.org reaches the American College of Sports Medicine site; http://www.maa.org reaches the Mathematical Association of America; http://www.apa.org reaches the American Psychological Society. Then explore the site for topics of interest.

Consider geography:
To explore geographical locations from a traveler's perspective, visit Travel.com's "Destinations" at http://www.travel.com.

Think in terms of people:
To explore possibilities that focus on people, connect to Biography.com's home page at http://www.biography.com to find profiles of 25,000 people. Or consult Infoplease.com's biography page at http://www.infoplease.com/people.html for listings by categories like "world rulers," "sports," and "entertainment."

Consider problems:
To identify problems that are worth exploring, connect with Public Agenda Online at http://www.publicagenda.org to link to issues categorized by nineteen subject headings. Or go to Lycos's directory of "Social Issues" at http://dir.lycos.com/society/issues for an alphabetical listing of hundreds of subjects.

Explore life changes:
Turn to a Web site called Life: Outlined at http://www.lifeoutlined.co.uk to find subjects grouped by these topics: "healthy life," "home life," "family life," "good life," "working life," "financial life," and "later life."

Examine subjects that generate strong opinions:
To identify subjects that have prompted serious debate, go to DebatingSociety.com at http://www.debatingsociety.com to explore this week's subjects and those of previous weeks. Or explore the Concordia College Library's "Controversial Issues Series" at http://www.cord.edu/dept/referenc/controversial.htm to see a list of sources on opinion-provoking subjects.

Analyze social, political, or cultural events:
To explore subjects of social, political, or cultural concern, go to the home pages of Excite at http://www.excite.com, Northern Light at http://www.northernlight.com, or some other search engine and peruse their directories of subjects.

Explore special interests:
To explore subjects of special interest, go to the home pages of Galaxy at http://www.galaxy.com, C/NET Search at http://www.search.com, or some other search engine and peruse their directories of subjects.