Target a research essay according to your instructor's directions. Know your teacher's expectations. These expectations are describe in the course syllabus and during the source of lectures. Particularly, your instructor will designate essay assignment criteria. While a teacher will not expect students to gather research above their education level, he will expect that students meet that fundamental level.
Narrow your topic focus. Begin with the course title. If the course is Russian History, use simple tools to guide your search. The course syllabus is a useful resource. If your instructor provided an outline of course material, note sub-sections up to the current point. Sub-headings are possible topics. For Russian History, a syllabus may include The Czars and The Russian Revolution as headings. Select one and narrow from there. You can perform a key word search with an SEO search tool. A keyword search for the current section of the course will yield refined topics to narrow your search. When you enter keywords, "russian history," narrowed topic ideas include "history of the Russian czars" and "short history of the Russian revolution."
Once you have an idea of the direction you want to go, continue to refine. If, for example, you want to write about the history of Russian czars, you might choose to write about the last czar. You can further narrow your topic to write about Czar Nicholas II and his policies toward peasants. How far you refine topic ideas depends upon assignment guidelines, required length of the essay and academic level of the work.
In many ways, the Internet is a useful resources. The Internet makes research tools previously unavailable to students. However, the Internet can be a double-edged sword. Ask a school librarian or your instructor about reliable websites. With an abundance of misinformation on the Internet, students are responsible for gathering sound information.