Selecting a Research Topic (Notes Adapted from Greenriver College)
Introduction y
Choosing a topic for your final research paper is a very important process, and you may find yourself going through many twists and turns before you end up with a topic with which you're happy. Even after you think you've found a suitable and interesting topic, you may end up changing your topic altogether or at least changing the focus, or what we call the research question.
One reason that choosing a good topic is important is because you'll be spending a lot of time thinking, researching and writing about it. For most people, it is incredibly agonizing and boring to work on a topic that they don't have any real interest in or one in which they have lost interest. This means that to retain your motivation and enthusiasm throughout the research and writing process, you have to anticipate that you might get bored with a topic in which you were initially interested.
Because you are choosing a topic for a research project, you should not automatically choose something about which you already know, in the hopes that this will reduce the amount of work that you have to do. At the same time, you should not automatically discard a topic on which you have some prior knowledge or even expertise; still, you should only choose such a topic if you are genuinely curious to learn more than you already know and if you feel that you can be genuinely open to altering your starting views and beliefs, based on the research and perspectives that you will run across.
A main point to keep in mind is that you are not producing an informational paper. Your purpose is not merely to inform your audience of information, data, or even analyses that have already been published someplace else. Your job is actually to create new knowledge! Please don't be daunted by this expectation: I recognize that the newness and originality of your contribution can only be fairly modest in such a short course as ours. Also, while some of the newness will come from the modest original research study (e.g., survey, case study, field observation, etc.) you propose, your analysis (overall argument) and research question itself will contribute new angles and insights that other writers and researchers haven't already explored fully.
Also note that you are choosing a topic within the social sciences, which means that you will not be doing research, for example, on the geology of Mt. Everest. Still, it is not only the topic that makes something fall within social sciences, but the kinds of questions we ask with regard to the topic and the kinds of approaches or research methods we follow as we try to answer those questions (review the Social Science Disciplines and Research Methods webpages for more on this point).
While it is crucial not to delay beginning the process of finding a suitable and ideal research topic, surprisingly there may be merit in a short delay in making the final topic selection. This might appear like a strange and contradictory statement: You shouldn't dilly dally in thinking about possible topics and even beginning initial, targeted reading on several topics in the library, databases, or the internet, but you should make sure you are allowing yourself the time to consider several real topic possibilities before tying yourself down to one for the rest of the quarter!
Probing Questions to Ask Yourself y
As you think of possible topics on which you'd like to do research and writing, pose the following questions to yourself. There's not necessarily a right or wrong answer to the questions, but they will allow you to explore whether the topic is the best choice or not.
- Am I seriously interested in this topic, or do I just have mild curiosity? Why? Why is it important to me personally (or to others)? What benefit is there for me to learn more about this topic through reading, research, thinking and writing? Does it connect to my academic, professional or personal interests?
- Do I already know or feel anything about this topic? Do I have significant information and data beyond the common knowledge that most people would have from TV or basic schooling? Beyond information that I may have, do I have strong views on the subject? To what extent are these views based on analysis and to what extent on emotion and opinion? Where did I get my information and views?
- What more would I like to learn about? What specific angles, dimensions, reasons, implications, etc. are not clear to me? Why might these matter to me or to others?
- Do I feel open-minded with regard to my topic? If I do research, am I prepared to reconsider and interrogate my initial views and beliefs -- my sense of which group of people is at fault for a problem, my notions of right or wrong, my convictions about what should be done, and other fundamental beliefs and assumptions that I may hold with regard to the topic.
- What information, data, and resources are available with regard to my topic? Have I done a preliminary review of available resources to determine that there will be enough for me to proceed? Will I be able to find scholarly sources (e.g., academic journal articles) relating to my topic and research question?
- Can I imagine a modest and viable original research study using the options from the Research Methods webpage? Am I excited about doing this research? Does the topic and the prospect of doing an original research study have the potential to motivate me to become creative, diligent and unrelenting?
- After reviewing the Required Sources section of the Research Project Guidelines webpage, am I confident that I can find an adequate range of sources,
- The "So What?" question: You are going to gather, examine and generate data and evidence, but this will not be enough. You will also have to interpret what you find and tell us why it's significant, how it changes our thinking about something, perhaps how what you find allows or invites us to see or do something differently as a result. In choosing your topic and research question, do you think you'll be able to respond to the "So What?" question?
Steps/Stages in Choosing and Narrowing a Research Topic y
1. Brainstorm: Develop a list of 5-10 topics you might be interested in researching. You might include a wide range of topics, including those about which you know something, those about which you don't know much but would like to know more, those that you think matter a great deal socially, and those that you think excite people's curiosity.
2. Other strategies for finding topics: If you feel like you're not happy with your brainstorming of topics above, I would recommend going to a good bookstore's magazine rack. You should be able to find a good range of magazines at such chain bookstores as Border's or Barnes & Noble, as well as other independent bookstores like Elliott Bay Books in Seattle. Look for what appear like serious newsmagazines (without a lot of glossy advertisements) as well as some academic journals you will find there. Browse through and see what captures your attention. You can also read through CR, "Quick Tip: Finding Topics" (pp. 53-55) for some more suggestions, as well as the Broad Suggestions for Topics list that appears at the bottom of this page.
3. Initial consideration: After you have identified 5-10 topics, think about each one a bit more carefully: ask yourself some of the questions above for each topic, especially why you're interested in the topic, what research question you might ask with regard to the topic (avoid yes/no, for/against, pro/con kinds of questions), what research method might be appropriate for the (modest) gathering of original data to help answer your research question. Even if you're not sure about what research question or method you would choose at this stage of the process, which would be understandable since you would not have begun research, this is still a useful exercise for revealing what you know about a topic and why you care about it.Refer to the Social Science Disciplines webpage and try to come up with at least one research question that each of the five different kinds of social scientists listed on the page would ask with regard to your topic.
4. Preliminary review of available articles and other sources: You may have already narrowed down your list of topics after the "initial consideration" step, but hopefully you still have more than one topic left on your list. At this stage, you should do a preliminary review of articles and sources that might be available on these potential topics. Use databases like Expanded Academic Index to find articles; please note that you will need to find scholarly journal articles on whatever topic you end up choosing, so you may as well quickly see if you can find some relevant scholarly articles on those topics that remain possibilities. Use an internet search engine (like google.com) to see what websites you might find. Note that when you're doing these preliminary searches for information, you will make use of basic library skills like experimenting with a range of subject and keyword terms to search for articles and results for any given topic.
5. Reconsideration: This is an important moment. You may be ready to choose ONE topic at this point because you may have discovered that you're no longer equally interested in or curious about all of the topics that were remaining in the previous stage. After a preliminary review of available articles and sources, you may have discovered that you cannot find equally rich articles, especially scholarly ones, for all topics. A brand new topic may have occurred to you, and it shouldn't take you too long to go through the earlier steps (#3 & 4) for this one too. If you still can't decide on just one yet, start reading one or two articles on more than one topic, recognizing that you can't stay in this limbo of not deciding your topic choice for too much longer.
6. Narrowing your topic: You may not be happy to hear that, even though you've gone through a number of steps already, finding a topic is only half the battle! Because the amount of time you have in a single quarter to produce a research paper is relatively short, you must narrow your topic so that you are not biting off more than you can chew. Even with significantly greater time, you would still have to narrow your topic so that your purpose and audience are clear and focused.
7. Finding a research question: Because your goal is to contribute something new to the ongoing public and scholarly conversations about your topic, you must find a research question that represents a unique or compelling or useful angle with regard to your topic. Your research question will definitely evolve as you do more reading and research, both as your familiarity with background information increases and as you attempt to figure out what research method will allow you to add to the pool of knowledge about your topic. Research questions are exploratory, seeking to explain and illuminate rather than to say something is right or wrong, or what is to be done. Research questions often try to interrogate a hidden or debated process or chain of causation; the experiences of a particular group of people with regard to a specific issue; the construction of identities or a view or belief; the changes in a relevant definition; or a misunderstanding or an inadequate understanding of some aspect of a topic (see CR, pp. 72-74). Topics and questions should not be framed as either/or, for/against, or good/bad propositions; go beyond binary thinking! Also, while your research might help us advocate for a particular course of action (e.g., to alleviate a specific problem), don’t feel obligated to solve social problems through your research; it should be sufficient to improve our understanding. Once again, refer to the Social Science Disciplines webpage to speculate about the different kinds of research questions that the different kinds of social scientists might ask with regard to your topic.