- Come up with or develop topic ideas
- Choose a topic
- Make sure you can adequately cover your topic in the pages or time allotted
- Make sure that your professor approves of your topic
Avoid problems in the research process by taking time to choose a topic that meets your assignment requirements and stirs your curiosity.
Come up with or Develop topic ideas
You can perform background research on the subject to discover topic ideas. Look for an interesting piece of information that you would like to investigate further in subject encyclopedias like those in Credo Reference or your textbook.
If you are having a hard time coming up with topic ideas, try brainstorming techniques
such as freewriting, listing, or mindmapping.
This video from the Sonoma State University Library explains how to brainstorm with
those techniques:
Learn about additional brainstorming techniques from the University of North Carolina’s Writing Center.
After choosing your topic, ask yourself the following questions:
Make sure you can adequately cover your topic in the pages or time allotted
Some topics may take a lifetime to explore while others can be explored in a four
page paper. Your instructions and the amount of information you find determines how
broad or narrow your topic needs to be.
Is my topic too big? A topic like “drinking” is too big. Your topic should be humanly possible for one person to study.
Is my topic too small? A topic like “The relationship between teenage drinking on school property after hours and armed robberies” is too narrow. This topic is so specific that you may not be able to find enough sources to help you support your topic. If that is the case, you may need to make your topic broader or draw conclusions based on sources that address particular parts of your topic.
Is my topic just right? A topic like “The relationship between teenage drinking and criminal behavior” is just right for a topic. It is not so broad that you could not cover it well enough for your assignment, and it is not so narrow that you would not be able to find research to help you understand the topic.
The following video from the John M. Pfau Library at California State University San Bernadino reviews how to choose a manageable research topic:
Make sure your professor approves of your topic
Finally, ask your professor to approve your topic to make sure it meets assignment requirements. You do not want to lose points or start over because your professor did not approve of your topic.