Research Basics

Develop Your Research Topic

5 Steps to Focus Your Research Topic

1. Select a topic that is narrow enough for your assignment, grounded in fact, and challenging enough to keep you interested. 
2. Find background information about your topic in encyclopedias, textbooks, and online to help focus your research.
3. Compare what you do know with what you still need to know, and develop research questions.
4. Identify descriptive keywords in your research questions that you can use to search for information.
5. Refine your topic as you become familiar with current research and trends. Topic development is ongoing.

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Choose a Topic

Is your topic assigned?

• Topics that are assigned to you can be broad or somewhat general.
• Focus in on a related topic or subtopic that is interesting to you.

Do you get to choose your own topic?

• Choose something interesting because you will be working on it for quite some time!
• Be sure your topic is narrow enough to be covered thoroughly in a 5-10 page research paper.

In either case:

• Carefully review the details of the research assignment.
• Check with your instructor to confirm the scope of the assignment.
  • How many pages does you paper need to have?
  • How many sources do you need to have?
  • What kinds of sources are required or allowed?

Do Preliminary Research (Pre-Search)

Get a better sense of the topic:

• Basic concepts, principles, approaches
• More focused aspects
• Key terminology

Common sources for preliminary research:

• Google/web browser
• Encyclopedia articles or Wikipedia
• Course textbooks

Narrow, Grounded & Challenging

Narrow - a good fit for the assignment parameters

• A topic is too narrow if you can’t find enough information to answer your research question.
• A topic is too broad if you are overwhelmed by the amount of information you find.
• You can narrow or broaden a topic by adding or eliminating:
  • a time period (year, decade, century)
  • a specific population (male, female, child, adult, nationality)
  • a geographic area (state, region, country)

Grounded - not speculative or biased

Research questions should be grounded in fact, able to be answered by means of evidence-based research, so avoid "what-if" questions. 
Unless specified by the assignment, research questions that center on philosophical or ethical issues are not appropriate, so avoid "could/should" questions.

Challenging - intellectually interesting

A bland question is one that does not require much inquiry to answer. If your question can be answered by one source, it is too bland.
To answer an interesting question, you may need to answer several bland questions.

From Topic to Research Question to Keywords

What's Next?

Once you've narrowed your broad topic to one that fits your assignment parameters, turn it into a research question (or thesis). Then identify the most descriptive keywords in your question or thesis, and use these keywords to navigate information sources to find books, articles, and websites.

Examples

Broad topic: Teen suicide
Narrow topic: Use of anti-depressants and teen suicide
Research question: How has the widespread use of antidepressant drugs affected teen suicide rates?
Keywords: antidepressants or "antidepressant drugs"; teen, teens, "young people," suicide