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Finding a Research Topic
- Review the assignment sheet your professor provided to make sure you understand what is required:
- How many pages does it have to be?
- How many outside sources must you incorporate?
- What types of sources do you need? (academic journal articles, books, newspapers, etc.)
- Did your professor give you a topic or can you choose one on your own?
- Brainstorm! Think about possible topics that you find interesting.
- Do some preliminary searching to get some background information and see if it's something you'd like to learn more about.
- If so, time to narrow your topic by asking the following:
- Who does this topic affect? (certain population, age group, gender, animals, etc.)
- What do you want to know more about? (causes, implications, solutions, etc.)
- When was this topic relevant? (currently, in the past, in the future, WWII, etc.)
- Where is this topic applicable? (specific country, the workplace, church, school, online, etc.)
- If after doing preliminary research the topic no longer interests you, you might want to consider changing it.
- Once you have your topic, it's time to develop a research question and search strategy to find appropriate resources.
