TESU LIB-495 Capstone Ideas

[JanuarySunshine]

I know so many of us have been stuck trying to come up with an idea for the Capstone, and I'm no exception.  I've spent countless hours looking through the forum and other information online and I'm still at a loss.  My major is BALS with a Social Sciences concentration.  Most of my classes have been psychology courses.  When I think about a "gap" in learning or something I didn't study as much as I would like, I think I would have liked to have taken more history classes.  How does one do a research paper on something from history?  (Assuming you have to do surveys or interviews as part of your research, which is my understanding.)  Anyway, here are some ideas of things I would have an interest in studying further, but they seem way too broad:

The Holocaust
The Civil Rights Movement
The national suicide epidemic

I will happily take (and possibly beg for) any advice/suggestions/ideas/feedback.  

I'm scheduled for the GS course, August term.  Thanks!

[davewill]

You have to boil it down to a research question and 3-6 subquestions. Once I started to try to frame those questions, my topic began to take shape. For example, if you want to tackle suicide, narrow it down to asking what the main contributors to the rise in suicide rates are. Subquestions might be things like how severe the problem is or what age groups are most affected.

Do this for at least three different major topics, then try searching for research material that might be useful. That should help you decide.

As far as original research, my mentor did not require that and I did none. I did use as much primary research material as possible.