Hot Topics for your Research Assignments

By Susan Gregg
Published on 24 March, 2022

Searching for a hot topic for your research assignment?

One of the first steps in starting a research paper is to choose a topic. Several of the library databases have a page with topics to choose from and then find articles about that topic. They include CQ Researcher, Issues and Controversies, and Opposing Viewpoints in Context. While these are great resources for choosing a topic, they don’t necessarily have topics recently in the news.

The Newsbank database has a list of current (this month) topics for you to choose from. To access Las Vegas/ Nevada News (Newsbank) click the Browse Databases button found on the library’s home page. Scroll down the list to Las Vegas/ Nevada News and click on the link. This is Newsbank, a database with newspaper articles from around the world as well as our local papers and broadcasting stations.

To see the list of current topics, look under Quick Links and click on Hot Topics and you’ll see the categories of topics that are in the news this month:

  • Current Events -Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
  • Business & Economics -Remington and Sandy Hook
  • Civics, Government & Politics- Supreme Court Blocks Redistricting Challenge
  • Social Issues-Supreme Court Nominee Jackson
  • Science, Technology & Health-Worldwide – To Loosen or Not Coronavirus Restrictions
  • Sports -USWNT Equal Pay Settlement
  • Arts & Literature-Banning Maus
  • People-Dr. Paul Farmer

Not only does Newsbank have a great list but each topic is summarized and you can use the questions to think about how you’re going to write or speak about the topic. Newsbank even offers search terms to get you started on conducting your own search in whatever database you might choose!