What to know: General topics are too big to research and write about. You'll need to narrow it down to a college level research question.
What you'll learn: How to narrow your topic down into a college-level research question by asking questions, doing a little research, and finding keywords that scholars use. And that you can do these parts in any order that works for you.
Why you should care: Doing this work upfront means that your book and article searching will go much faster.