narrow research topics examples

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• Research Guides

Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper

• Narrowing a Topic Idea
• Purpose of Guide
• Design Flaws to Avoid
• Independent and Dependent Variables
• Glossary of Research Terms
• Reading Research Effectively
• Broadening a Topic Idea
• Extending the Timeliness of a Topic Idea
• Academic Writing Style
• Choosing a Title
• Making an Outline
• Paragraph Development
• Research Process Video Series
• Executive Summary
• The C.A.R.S. Model
• Background Information
• The Research Problem/Question
• Theoretical Framework
• Citation Tracking
• Content Alert Services
• Evaluating Sources
• Primary Sources
• Secondary Sources
• Tiertiary Sources
• Scholarly vs. Popular Publications
• Qualitative Methods
• Quantitative Methods
• Insiderness
• Using Non-Textual Elements
• Limitations of the Study
• Common Grammar Mistakes
• Writing Concisely
• Avoiding Plagiarism
• Footnotes or Endnotes?
• Further Readings
• Generative AI and Writing
• USC Libraries Tutorials and Other Guides
• Bibliography

Importance of Narrowing the Research Topic

Whether you are assigned a general issue to investigate, must choose a problem to study from a list given to you by your professor, or you have to identify your own topic to investigate, it is important that the scope of the research problem is not too broad, otherwise, it will be difficult to adequately address the topic in the space and time allowed. You could experience a number of problems if your topic is too broad, including:

• You find too many information sources and, as a consequence, it is difficult to decide what to include or exclude or what are the most relevant sources.
• You find information that is too general and, as a consequence, it is difficult to develop a clear framework for examining the research problem.
• A lack of sufficient parameters that clearly define the research problem makes it difficult to identify and apply the proper methods needed to analyze it.
• You find information that covers a wide variety of concepts or ideas that can't be integrated into one paper and, as a consequence, you trail off into unnecessary tangents.

Lloyd-Walker, Beverly and Derek Walker. "Moving from Hunches to a Research Topic: Salient Literature and Research Methods." In Designs, Methods and Practices for Research of Project Management . Beverly Pasian, editor. ( Burlington, VT: Gower Publishing, 2015 ), pp. 119-129.

Strategies for Narrowing the Research Topic

A common challenge when beginning to write a research paper is determining how and in what ways to narrow down your topic . Even if your professor gives you a specific topic to study, it will almost never be so specific that you won’t have to narrow it down at least to some degree [besides, it is very boring to grade fifty papers that are all about the exact same thing!].

A topic is too broad to be manageable when a review of the literature reveals too many different, and oftentimes conflicting or only remotely related, ideas about how to investigate the research problem. Although you will want to start the writing process by considering a variety of different approaches to studying the research problem, you will need to narrow the focus of your investigation at some point early in the writing process. This way, you don't attempt to do too much in one paper.

Here are some strategies to help narrow the thematic focus of your paper :

• Aspect -- choose one lens through which to view the research problem, or look at just one facet of it [e.g., rather than studying the role of food in South Asian religious rituals, study the role of food in Hindu marriage ceremonies, or, the role of one particular type of food among several religions].
• Components -- determine if your initial variable or unit of analysis can be broken into smaller parts, which can then be analyzed more precisely [e.g., a study of tobacco use among adolescents can focus on just chewing tobacco rather than all forms of usage or, rather than adolescents in general, focus on female adolescents in a certain age range who choose to use tobacco].
• Methodology -- the way in which you gather information can reduce the domain of interpretive analysis needed to address the research problem [e.g., a single case study can be designed to generate data that does not require as extensive an explanation as using multiple cases].
• Place -- generally, the smaller the geographic unit of analysis, the more narrow the focus [e.g., rather than study trade relations issues in West Africa, study trade relations between Niger and Cameroon as a case study that helps to explain economic problems in the region].
• Relationship -- ask yourself how do two or more different perspectives or variables relate to one another. Designing a study around the relationships between specific variables can help constrict the scope of analysis [e.g., cause/effect, compare/contrast, contemporary/historical, group/individual, child/adult, opinion/reason, problem/solution].
• Time -- the shorter the time period of the study, the more narrow the focus [e.g., restricting the study of trade relations between Niger and Cameroon to only the period of 2010 - 2020].
• Type -- focus your topic in terms of a specific type or class of people, places, or phenomena [e.g., a study of developing safer traffic patterns near schools can focus on SUVs, or just student drivers, or just the timing of traffic signals in the area].
• Combination -- use two or more of the above strategies to focus your topic more narrowly.

NOTE : Apply one of the above strategies first in designing your study to determine if that gives you a manageable research problem to investigate. You will know if the problem is manageable by reviewing the literature on your more narrowed problem and assessing whether prior research is sufficient to move forward in your study [i.e., not too much, not too little]. Be careful, however, because combining multiple strategies risks creating the opposite problem--your problem becomes too narrowly defined and you can't locate enough research or data to support your study.

Booth, Wayne C. The Craft of Research . Fourth edition. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2016; Coming Up With Your Topic. Institute for Writing Rhetoric. Dartmouth College; Narrowing a Topic. Writing Center. University of Kansas; Narrowing Topics. Writing@CSU. Colorado State University; Strategies for Narrowing a Topic. University Libraries. Information Skills Modules. Virginia Tech University; The Process of Writing a Research Paper. Department of History. Trent University; Ways to Narrow Down a Topic. Contributing Authors. Utah State OpenCourseWare.

• << Previous: Reading Research Effectively
• Next: Broadening a Topic Idea >>
• Last Updated: Apr 3, 2024 10:04 AM
• URL: https://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide

Research Tips and Tricks

• Getting Started
• Understanding the Assignment
• Topic Selection Tips

Topic Narrowing

Ways to narrow your topic, be careful, tools to help, youtube videos about narrowing a topic.

• Breaking Topic Into Keywords
• Developing A Search Strategy
• Scholarly vs Popular Sources
• What Are Primary Sources?
• Finding Scholarly Articles
• Finding Scholarly Books
• Finding Primary Sources
• Citing My Sources This link opens in a new window

Instructional Librarian

Talk to your professor

A common challenge when beginning to write a research paper is determining how to narrow down your topic. 

Even if your professor gives you a topic to study, it will seldom be specific enough that you will not have to narrow it down, at least to some degree.

A topic is too broad to be manageable when you find that you have too many different, conflicting or only remotely related ideas. 

Although you will want to start the writing process by considering a variety of different approaches to studying the research problem, you will need to narrow the focus of your investigation at some point early in the writing process - this way you don't attempt to do too much in one paper.

Here are some strategies to help narrow your topic :

Aspect  -- choose one lens through which to view the research problem, or look at just one facet of it.

• e.g., rather than studying the role of food in South Asian religious rituals, explore the role of food in Hindu ceremonies or the role of one particular type of food among several religions.

Components  -- determine if your initial variable or unit of analysis can be broken into smaller parts, which can then be analyzed more precisely. 

• e.g., a study of tobacco use among adolescents can focus on just chewing tobacco rather than all forms of usage or, rather than adolescents in general, focus on female adolescents in a specific age range who choose to use tobacco.

Methodology  -- how you gather information can reduce the domain of interpretive analysis needed to address the research problem.

• e.g., a single case study can be designed to generate data that does not require as extensive an explanation as using multiple cases.

Place  -- generally, the smaller the geographic unit of analysis, the more narrow the focus.

• e.g., rather than study trade relations in North America, study trade relations between Mexico and the United States. 

Relationship  -- ask yourself how do two or more different perspectives or variables relate to one another. Designing a study around the relationships between specific variables can help constrict the scope of analysis. 

• e.g., cause/effect, compare/contrast, contemporary/historical, group/individual, male/female, opinion/reason, problem/solution.

Time  -- the shorter the time period of the study, the more narrow the focus.

• e.g., study of relations between Russia and the United States during the Vietnam War.

Type  -- focus your topic in terms of a specific type or class of people, places, or phenomena. 

• e.g., a study of developing safer traffic patterns near schools can focus on SUVs, or just student drivers, or just the timing of traffic signals in the area.

Cause  -- focus your topic to just one cause for your topic.

• e.g., rather than writing about all the causes of WW1, just write about nationalism.

When narrowing your topic, make sure you don't narrow it too much. A topic is too narrow if you can state it in just a few words.

For example:

• How many soldiers died during the first world war?
• Who was the first President of the United States?
• Why is ocean water salty?
• Why are Pringles shaped the way they are?
• Developing a Research Topic This exercise is designed to help you develop a thoughtful topic for your research assignment, including methods for narrowing your topic.
• What Makes a Good Research Question?
• Narrowing Your topic
• Four Steps To Narrow Your Research Topic

• << Previous: Topic Selection Tips
• Next: Breaking Topic Into Keywords >>
• Last Updated: Feb 16, 2024 10:08 AM
• URL: https://kingsu.libguides.com/research

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1-Research Questions

2. Narrowing a Topic

For many students, having to start with a research question is the biggest difference between how they did research in high school and how they are required to carry out their college research projects. It’s a process of working from the outside in: you start with the world of all possible topics (or your assigned topic) and narrow down until you’ve focused your interest enough to be able to tell precisely what you want to find out, instead of only what you want to “write about.”

Process of Narrowing a Topic

All Possible Topics -You’ll need to narrow your topic in order to do research effectively. Without specific areas of focus, it will be hard to even know where to begin.

Assigned Topics – When professors assign a topic you have to narrow, they have already started the narrowing process. Narrowing a topic means making some part of it more specific. Ideas about a narrower topic can come from anywhere. Often, a narrower topic boils down to deciding what’s interesting to you. One way to get ideas is to read background information from a source like Wikipedia.

Topic Narrowed by Initial Exploration –  It’s wise to do some more reading about that narrower topic to a) learn more about it and b) learn specialized terms used by professionals and scholars who study it.

Topic Narrowed to Research Question(s) –  A research question defines exactly what you are trying to find out. It will influence most of the steps you take to conduct the research.

ACTIVITY: Which Topic Is Narrower?

When we talk about narrowing a topic, we’re talking about making it more specific. You can make it more specific by singling out at least one part or aspect of the original to decrease the scope of the original. Now here’s some practice for you to test your understanding.

Why Narrow a Topic?

Once you have a need for research—say, an assignment—you may need to prowl around a bit online to explore the topic and figure out what you actually want to find out and write about.

For instance, maybe your assignment is to develop a poster about the season “spring” for an introductory horticulture course. The instructor expects you to narrow that topic to something you are interested in and that is related to your class.

Ideas about a narrower topic can come from anywhere. In this case, a narrower topic boils down to deciding what’s interesting to you about “spring” that is related to what you’re learning in your horticulture class and small enough to manage in the time you have.

One way to get ideas would be to read about spring in Wikipedia, looking for things that seem interesting and relevant to your class, and then letting one thing lead to another as you keep reading and thinking about likely possibilities that are more narrow than the enormous “spring” topic. (Be sure to pay attention to the references at the bottom of most Wikipedia pages and pursue any that look interesting. Your instructor is not likely to let you cite Wikipedia, but those references may be citable scholarly sources that you could eventually decide to use.)

Or, instead, if it is spring at the time you could start by just looking around, admire the blooming trees on campus, and decide you’d like your poster to be about bud development on your favorites, the crabapple trees.

What you’re actually doing to narrow your topic is making at least one aspect of your topic more specific. For instance, assume your topic is the maintenance of the 130 miles of sidewalks on OSU’s Columbus campus. If you made maintenance more specific, your narrower topic might be snow removal on Columbus OSU’s sidewalks. If instead, you made the 130 miles of sidewalks more specific, your narrower topic might be maintenance of the sidewalks on all sides of Mirror Lake.

Anna Narrows Her Topic and Works on a Research Question

The Situation: Anna, an undergraduate, has been assigned a research paper on Antarctica. Her professor expects students to (1) narrow the topic on something more specific about Antarctica because they won’t have time to cover that whole topic. Then they are to (2) come up with a research question that their paper will answer.

The professor explained that the research question should be something they are interested in answering and that it must be more complicated than what they could answer with a quick Google search. He also said that research questions often, but not always, start with either the word “how” or “why.”

What you should do:

• Read what Anna is thinking below as she tries to do the assignment.
• After the reading, answer the questions at the end of the monologue in your own mind.
• Check your answers with ours at the end of Anna’s interior monologue.
• Keep this demonstration in mind the next time you are in Anna’s spot, and you can mimic her actions and think about your own topic.

Anna’s Interior Monologue

Okay, I am going to have to write something—a research paper—about Antarctica. I don’t know anything about that place—I think it’s a continent. I can’t think of a single thing I’ve ever wanted to know about Antarctica. How will I come up with a research question about that place? Calls for Wikipedia, I guess.

At https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctica . Just skimming. Pretty boring stuff. Oh, look– Antarctica’s a desert! I guess “desert” doesn’t have to do with heat. That’s interesting. What else could it have to do with? Maybe lack of precipitation? But there’s lots of snow and ice there. Have to think about that—what makes a desert a desert?

It says one to five thousand people live there in research stations. Year-round. Definitely, the last thing I’d ever do. “…there is no evidence that it was seen by humans until the 19th century.” I never thought about whether anybody lived in Antarctica first, before the scientists and stuff.

Lots of names—explorer, explorer… boring. It says Amundson reached the South Pole first. Who’s Amundson? But wait. It says, “One month later, the doomed Scott Expedition reached the pole.” Doomed? Doomed is always interesting. Where’s more about the Scott Expedition? I’m going to use that Control-F technique and type in Scott to see if I can find more about him on this page. Nothing beyond that one sentence shows up. Why would they have just that one sentence? I’ll have to click on the Scott Expedition link.

But it gives me a page called Terra Nova Expedition. What does that have to do with Scott? And just who was Scott? And why was his expedition doomed? There he is in a photo before going to Antarctica. Guess he was English. Other photos show him and his team in the snow. Oh, the expedition was named Terra Nova after the ship they sailed this time—in 1911. Scott had been there earlier on another ship.

Lots of stuff about preparing for the trip. Then stuff about expedition journeys once they were in Antarctica. Not very exciting—nothing about being doomed. I don’t want to write about this stuff.

Wait. The last paragraph of the first section says “For many years after his death, Scott’s status as a tragic hero was unchallenged,” but then it says that in the 20th-century people looked closer at the expedition’s management and at whether Scott and some of his team could be personally blamed for the catastrophe. That “remains controversial,” it says. Catastrophe? Personally blamed? Hmm.

Back to skimming. It all seems horrible to me. They actually planned to kill their ponies for meat, so when they actually did it, it was no surprise. Everything was extremely difficult. And then when they arrived at the South Pole, they found that the explorer Amundsen had beaten them. Must have been a big disappointment.

The homeward march was even worse. The weather got worse. The dog sleds that were supposed to meet them periodically with supplies didn’t show up. Or maybe the Scott group was lost and didn’t go to the right meeting places. Maybe that’s what that earlier statement meant about whether the decisions that were made were good ones. Scott’s diary said the crystallized snow made it seem like they were pushing and pulling the sledges through dry sand .

It says that before things turned really bad ( really bad? You’ve already had to eat your horses !), Scott allowed his men to put 30 pounds of rocks with fossils on the sledges they were pushing and dragging. Now was that sensible? The men had to push or pull those sledges themselves. What if it was those rocks that actually doomed those men?

But here it says that those rocks are the proof of continental drift. So how did they know those rocks were so important? Was that knowledge worth their lives? Could they have known?

Wow–there is drama on this page! Scott’s diary is quoted about their troubles on the expedition—the relentless cold, frostbite, and the deaths of their dogs. One entry tells of a guy on Scott’s team “now with hands as well as feet pretty well useless” voluntarily leaving the tent and walking to his death. The diary says that the team member’s last words were ”I am just going outside and may be some time.” Ha!

They all seem lost and desperate but still have those sledges. Why would you keep pulling and pushing those sledges containing an extra 30 pounds of rock when you are so desperate and every step is life or death?

Then there’s Scott’s last diary entry, on March 29, 1912. “… It seems a pity but I do not think I can write more.” Well.

That diary apparently gave lots of locations of where he thought they were but maybe they were lost. It says they ended up only 11 miles from one of their supply stations. I wonder if anybody knows how close they were to where Scott thought they were.

I’d love to see that diary. Wouldn’t that be cool? Online? I’ll Google it.

Yes! At the British museum. Look at that! I can see Scott’s last entry IN HIS OWN HANDWRITING!

Actually, if I decide to write about something that requires reading the diary, it would be easier to not have to decipher his handwriting. Wonder whether there is a typed version of it online somewhere?

Maybe I should pay attention to the early paragraph on the Terra Nova Expedition page in Wikipedia—about it being controversial whether Scott and his team made bad decisions so that they brought most of their troubles on themselves. Can I narrow my topic to just the controversy over whether bad decisions of Scott and his crew doomed them? Maybe it’s too big a topic if I consider the decisions of all team members. Maybe I should just consider Scott’s decisions.

So what research question could come from that? Maybe: how did Scott’s decisions contribute to his team’s deaths in Antarctica? But am I talking about his decisions before or after they left for Antarctica? Or the whole time they were a team? Probably too many decisions involved. More focused: How did Scott’s decisions after reaching the South Pole help or hurt the chances of his team getting back safely? That’s not bad—maybe. If people have written about that. There are several of his decisions discussed on the Wikipedia page, and I know there are sources at the bottom of that page.

Let me think—what else did I see that was interesting or puzzling about all this? I remember being surprised that Antarctica is a desert. So maybe I could make Antarctica as a desert my topic. My research question could be something like: Why is Antarctica considered a desert? But there has to be a definition of deserts somewhere online, so that doesn’t sound complicated enough. Once you know the definition of desert, you’d know the answer to the question. Professor Sanders says research questions are more complicated than regular questions.

What’s a topic I could care about? A question I really wonder about? Maybe those rocks with the fossils in them. It’s just so hard to imagine desperate explorers continuing to push those sledges with an extra 30 pounds of rocks on them. Did they somehow know how important they would be? Or were they just curious about them? Why didn’t they ditch them? Or maybe they just didn’t realize how close to death they were. Maybe I could narrow my Antarctica topic to those rocks.

Maybe my narrowed topic could be something like: The rocks that Scott and his crew found in Antarctica that prove continental drift. Maybe my research question could be: How did Scott’s explorers choose the rocks they kept?

Well, now all I have is questions about my questions. Like, is my professor going to think the question about the rocks is still about Antarctica? Or is it all about continental drift or geology or even the psychology of desperate people? And what has been written about the finding of those rocks? Will I be able to find enough sources? I’m also wondering whether my question about Scott’s decisions is too big—do I have enough time for it?

I think my professor is the only one who can tell me whether my question about the rocks has enough to do with Antarctica. Since he’s the one who will be grading my paper. But a librarian can help me figure out the other things.

So Dr. Sanders and a librarian are next.

Reflection Questions

• Was Anna’s choice to start with Wikipedia a good choice? Why or why not?
• Have you ever used that Control-F technique?
• At what points does Anna think about where to look for information?
• At the end of this session, Anna hasn’t yet settled on a research question. So what did she accomplish? What good was all this searching and thinking?

Our Answers:

• Was Anna’s choice to start with Wikipedia a good choice? Why or why not? Wikipedia is a great place to start a research project. Just make sure you move on from there, because it’s a not a good place to end up with your project. One place to move on to is the sources at the bottom of most Wikipedia pages.
• Have you ever used that Control-F technique? If you haven’t used the Control-F technique, we hope you will. It can save you a lot of time and effort reading online material.
• At what points does Anna think about where to look for information ? When she began; when she wanted to know more about the Scott expedition; when she wonders whether she could read Scott’s diary online; when she thinks about what people could answer her questions.
• At the end of this session, Anna hasn’t yet settled on a research question. So what did she accomplish? What good was all this reading and thinking? There are probably many answers to this question. Ours includes that Anna learned more about Antarctica, the subject of her research project. She focused her thinking (even if she doesn’t end up using the possible research questions she’s considering) and practiced critical thinking skills, such as when she thought about what she could be interested in, when she worked to make her potential research questions more specific, and when she figured out what questions still needed answering at the end. She also practiced her skills at making meaning from what she read, investigating a story that she didn’t expect to be there and didn’t know had the potential of being one that she is interested in. She also now knows what questions she needs answered and whom to ask. These thinking skills are what college is all about. Anna is way beyond where she was when she started.

Choosing & Using Sources: A Guide to Academic Research Copyright © 2015 by Teaching & Learning, Ohio State University Libraries is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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1 Narrowing a Topic

Defining your research question is a process of working from the outside in: you start with the world of all possible topics (or your assigned topic) and narrow down until you have focused your interest enough to be able to state precisely what you want to find out, instead of only what you want to “write about.”

Going through this process can be the hardest part of doing research, but once you have a question that is realistically scoped (not too broad, not too narrow) it will guide the rest of your work.

 The Process of Narrowing a Topic

ACTIVITY: Which Topic is Narrower? 

Now it’s your turn. Practice thinking about narrower topics with these 3 examples. Click the arrow to show the next question.

TIP: Use Some of the 5 W’s to Help Narrow Your Topic to a Searchable Question

Your assignment is to write on the topic of higher education. You decide you want to write about the high cost of tuition, but that is still too broad.

Start by asking some or all of the following questions.

From asking these questions, you might come up with a research question like this:

“How does the high cost of tuition impact the degree completion of mature college students?”

Image: “ Rq-narrow ” by Teaching and Learning, University Libraries is licensed under CC BY-4.0 .

Doing Research Copyright © 2020 by Celia Brinkerhoff is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Choosing and narrowing a topic to write about (for research papers), introduction to choosing a research topic.

Introduction: Research is Never a Waste of Time, But Always Make Good Use of Your Time.

It is natural to stand at the beginning of a research project and feel overwhelmed by the amount of published research that exists in databases, literature reviews, and reference pages. At the same time, each new research project brings the hope of discovering something new. Overwhelming though a project may be, starting at the foothills of a new thread of research is a great privilege, and is best approached as an opportunity to learn rather than a drudgery. As a researcher/writer, you have the chance to dive more deeply into less frequently encountered pools of knowledge.

Depending on the topic or scope of your research, it is also natural to spend many days and weeks - and in some cases months and years - searching. No matter how great or small the scope of research is, the serious researcher needs to reserve adequate time to perform a thorough survey of published articles. For an undergraduate course project, finding five or six sources might seem like plenty of material to review, but graduate-level writing projects typically involve up to 20 sources minimum.

Please note that the main point here is not to say that it is only the number of research articles matters most, but rather that having a broad spectrum of papers to choose from helps you choose your topic for at least the following two reasons: 1) a larger pool of sources provides you with a broader perspective of the topics within your scope of research and 2) along the way you will find many topics within your field that you DO NOT want to write about! So, one particularly effective way of viewing research is not finding the absolute minimum sources to "get by", but rather to find a variety of sources that you can use...like an artist uses negative space to "carve" shapes out of a dark background...to guide you toward topics that are more directly relevant to your topic.

The good news is that as you research you may find that some of your sources that were published in the same decade or so will cite and reference each other.

One of the joys and privileges of research is being able to follow your curiosity; if you are truly curious about your topic, and authentically driven to find out as much as you can, then even the articles you don't find interesting will be useful for a future project, and no energy will be wasted.

Source: Neil Cunningham

Steps 1, 2, and 3: Choosing a Topic

Well, you've been researching for a while now, and you are now ready to settle down on a specific topic. You can do this easily by moving through the following steps. (For the purposes of this learning packet, let say that you are writing on the subject of decomposition .)

Choosing a Specific Topic in Three Steps

1. Choose any topic or topics in the universe. - "e.g., something about organic matter"

2. Be a little more specific about your topic . - "e.g., compost and soil"

3. Be a lot more specific about your topic - "e.g., soil nutrients released by organic matter decomposition"

4. Repeat these three steps three or more times to give yourself a few examples of topics to choose from . When you have a few examples, choose the topic that you feel meets your course requirements, the needs of your intended (or imagined) audience, and/or has the most relevant source material to support it. .

Once you feel terrifically solid about the topic you have chosen, you are ready to Narrow Down Your Topic . Always remember that you can go back to research at any time of your writing process.

Steps 3, 4, and 5: Narrowing Down Your Topic

During the first three steps, you chose a topic. For some, this topic may seem like it's ready to be written about, but the level of precision required in the context of academic writing requires writer-researcher to go through a few additional steps.

In other words, many articles have already been written that describe various aspects of organic matter decomposition, so we must narrow down our chosen topic so that we can focus our research efforts on a more precise question or thesis statement.

Narrowing a Topic in Three Steps, Starting from a Topic that Was Selected Using the Three-Step Choosing a Topic Process.

1) Make one or two more words more specific .

In this case, we replaced the words "soil nutrients" with nitrogen and replaced "organic matter" with food waste to make the topic we wish to write about as precise and as specific as possible.

• Example: " soil nutrients nitrogen released by organic matter the decomposition of food waste "

2) OK, we've added a few words to make the topic more specific. Now turn the topic into a complete sentence that actually makes a statement.

• Example: The forms of nitrogen released by the decomposition of food waste is poorly understood.

3) Make the sentence as precise and arguable as possible.

If you compare the following example with the previous step, you might notice how the context of decomposition moves from just a generalized process of decomposition to a particular process that involves household waste. In addition, this example makes a firm statement that can be argued and supported.

• Example: The amount and value of plant-available nitrogen released by decomposition of household food waste is not well understood because most home composters do not have the tools to measure soil nutrients.

In summary, the steps outlined in this learning packet encourage academic writers who want to increase the precision of the topics they write about to go through a process.

This learning packet has broken down the process of selecting a topic into two large steps - choosing a topic and narrowing it down.

To choose a general topic, follow the following steps:

     1) Choose a topic area. Example: beer

     2) Take you topic area and describe it more specifically. Example: beer and microorganisms

     3) Name a specific aspect of the specific topic. Example: the quality of beer and the quality of microorganisms needed    to brew it properly

To narrow down the focus of your topic, follow the following three steps:

     4) Write down additional specific about your topic. Example: brewing quality tasting beer and the health of the colonies of yeast used to brew small batches of beer  properly.

     5) Turn your topic into a sentence that is a statement. Example: The quality of small batches of beer is affected by the overall health of the yeast used during fermentation.

     6) Now add "fine" focus to your statement by making a statement that can (although it does not necessarily need to) refer back to your research. Example: A survey of microbrewers suggests that beer taste is equally affected by the health of yeast used during fermentation as it is by the quality of the grains used.  

Choosing and Narrowing a Topic

This audio file describes the process of choosing and narrowing a topic that is demonstrated in this learning packet. This audio file is a supplement to the text portion of this packet, and is meant to be listened to the powerpoint slide.

Choosing a Research Topic [Overview]

This narrated slide show provides a brief overview and an example of the topic-selecting process described in this learning packet.

Learning Objectives

Subject:  Pre-Writing Strategies   Topic:  Choosing a Research Topic, Narrowing a Research Topic   Objectives:   This learning packet should review:

• Selecting a topic for research
• Bridging research topics with actual research
• Generating ideas for research topics
• Overcoming writer's block

  Background Knowledge:  By this point, a student should have been exposed to basic research techniques and have a minimum of 3-5 sources to begin to write from.   New Terms:  A few terms that may be new are:

• Thesis statement
• Supportable topic
• Evidence-based writing
• Scholarly writing

  A few notes: For best results, the method described in this learning packet should be practiced several times in order to develop confidence and consistency.

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Narrowing a Topic

For many students, having to start with a research question is the biggest difference between how they did research in high school and how they are required to carry out their college research projects. It’s a process of working from the outside in: you start with the world of all possible topics (or your assigned topic) and narrow down until you’ve focused your interest enough to be able to tell precisely what you want to find out, instead of only what you want to “write about.”

Process of Narrowing a Topic

Visualize narrowing a topic as starting with all possible topics and choosing narrower and narrower subsets until you have a specific enough topic to form a research question.

All Possible Topics – You’ll need to narrow your topic to do research effectively. Without specific areas of focus, it will be hard to even know where to begin.

Assigned Topics –  Ideas about a narrower topic can come from anywhere. Often, a narrower topic boils down to deciding what’s interesting to you. One way to get ideas is to read background information in a source like Wikipedia.

Topic Narrowed by Initial Exploration –  It’s wise to do some background reading about that narrower topic to a) learn more about it and b) learn specialized terms used by professionals and scholars who study it.

Topic Narrowed to Research Question(s) –  A research question defines exactly what you are trying to find out. It will influence most of the steps you take to conduct the research.

Why Narrow a Topic?

Once you have a need for research—say, an assignment—you may need to prowl around a bit online to explore the topic and figure out what you actually want to find out and write about. For instance, maybe your assignment is to develop a poster about “spring” for an introductory horticulture course. The instructor expects you to narrow that topic to something you are interested in and that is related to your class.

Another way to view a narrowed topic is as a sliver of the whole topic.

Ideas about a narrower topic can come from anywhere. In this case, a narrower topic boils down to deciding what’s interesting to you about “spring” that is related to what you’re learning in your horticulture class and small enough to manage in the time you have. One way to get ideas would be to read about spring in Wikipedia, a reference database such as CREDO, or a subject encyclopedia. Look for things that seem interesting and relevant to your class, and then let one thing lead to another as you keep reading and thinking about likely possibilities that are more narrow than the enormous “spring” topic. Be sure to pay attention to the references at the bottom of most Wikipedia pages and pursue any that look interesting. Your instructor is not likely to let you cite Wikipedia, but those references may be scholarly sources that you could eventually decide to use and cite.

Or, instead, if it is spring at the time you could start by just looking around, admire the blooming trees on campus, and decide you’d like your poster to be about bud development on your favorites, the crabapple trees.

Jada Narrows Her Topic and Works on a Research Question

The Situation: Jada, an undergraduate, has been assigned a research paper on Antarctica. Her professor expects students to narrow the topic to something more specific about Antarctica because they won’t have time to cover that whole topic. Then they are to come up with a research question that their paper will answer.

The professor explained that the research question should be something they are interested in answering and that it must be more complicated than what they could answer with a quick Google search. She also said that research questions often start with either the word “how” or “why.”

Try it out:

• Read what Jada is thinking below as she tries to do the assignment.
• After the reading, answer the questions based on your own approach to research.
• Check your answers with ours.
• Keep this passage in mind the next time you start a research topic and mimic the process that Jada uses.

Jada’s Thoughts

Okay, I have to write—a research paper—about Antarctica. I don’t know anything about that place—and I can’t think of a single thing I’d like to know about Antarctica. Calls for Wikipedia, I guess.

Guess I’ll go here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctica . Just skimming. Pretty boring stuff. Oh, look– Antarctica’s a desert! I guess “desert” doesn’t have to do with heat. That’s interesting. Why is it considered a desert, there’s lots of snow and ice there. Have to think about that—what makes a desert a desert.

It says one to five thousand people live there in research stations. Year-round. And there is no evidence that it was seen by humans until the 19th century. I never thought about whether anybody lived in Antarctica first, before explorers and scientists.

Lots of names—explorers, others. It says Amundsen reached the South pole first. Who’s Amundsen? But wait. It says, “One month later, the doomed Scott Expedition reached the pole.” Doomed? Doomed is always interesting. Where is there more information about the Scott Expedition? There is only one sentence. Why would they have just that one sentence? I’ll have to click on the Scott Expedition link.

Terra Nova…

But it gives me a page called Terra Nova Expedition. What does that have to do with Scott? Who was he and why was his expedition doomed? There he is in a photo before going to Antarctica. Guess he was English. Other photos show him and his team in the snow. Oh, the expedition was named Terra Nova after the ship they sailed this time—in 1911. Scott was also there earlier on another ship.

Lots of info about preparing for the trip. Then stuff about expedition journeys once they were in Antarctica. Not very exciting—nothing about being doomed.

Wait. The last paragraph of the first section says “For many years after his death, Scott’s status as a tragic hero was unchallenged,” but then it says that in the 20th-century people looked closer at the expedition’s management and at whether Scott and some of his team could be personally blamed for the catastrophe. That “remains controversial,” it says. Catastrophe? Personally, blamed? Hmm.

Back to skimming. It all seems horrible to me. They actually planned to kill their ponies for meat. Everything was extremely difficult. And then when they arrived at the South Pole, they found that the explorer Amundsen had beaten them. Must have been a big disappointment.

The homeward march was even worse. The weather was bad. The dog sleds that were supposed to meet them periodically with supplies didn’t show up. Or maybe the Scott group was lost and didn’t go to the right meeting places. Maybe that’s what that earlier statement meant about whether the decisions that were made were good ones. Scott’s diary said the crystallized snow made it seem like they were pushing and pulling the sleds through dry sand .

It says that before things turned really bad, Scott allowed his men to put 30 pounds of rocks with fossils on the sleds they were pushing and dragging. Now was that sensible? But here it says that those rocks are the proof of continental drift. So how did they know those rocks were so important? Was that knowledge worth their lives? Could they have known?

Scott’s diary is quoted about their troubles on the expedition—the relentless cold, frostbite, and the deaths of their dogs. One entry tells of a guy on Scott’s team “now with hands as well as feet pretty well useless” voluntarily leaving the tent and walking to his death. The diary says that the team member’s last words were ”I am just going outside and may be some time.”

They all seem lost and desperate but still have those sleds. Why would you keep pulling and pushing those sleds containing an extra 30 pounds of rock when you are so desperate and every step is life or death?

Then there’s Scott’s last diary entry, on March 29, 1912. “… It seems a pity but I do not think I can write more.”. The diary apparently gave lots of locations of where he thought they were but maybe they were lost. It says they ended up only 11 miles from one of their supply stations.

I’d love to see that diary. Wouldn’t that be cool? Online? I’ll Google it. Yes! it’s at the British Museum. Look at that! I can see Scott’s last entry IN HIS OWN HANDWRITING! And there’s a digital copy too.

I wonder if I should narrow my topic to just the controversy over whether the expedition was doomed because of the bad decisions made by Scott and his crew?  Maybe it’s too big a topic if I consider the decisions of all team members. Maybe I should just consider Scott’s decisions. They should be noted in the diary.

So what research question could come from that? Maybe: how did Scott’s decisions contribute to his team’s deaths in Antarctica? Need to be more focused: How did Scott’s decisions after reaching the South Pole help or hurt the chances of his team getting back safely? There are several of his decisions discussed on the Wikipedia page, and I know there are sources at the bottom of that page.

Really, a desert?

Let me think—what else did I see that was interesting or puzzling about all this? I remember being surprised that Antarctica is a desert. So maybe I could make the desert of Antarctica my topic. My research question could be something like: Why is Antarctica considered a desert? But there has to be a definition of deserts somewhere online, so that doesn’t sound complicated enough. Maybe those rocks with the fossils in them. It’s just so hard to imagine desperate explorers continuing to push those sleds with an extra 30 pounds of rocks on them. Did they somehow know how important they would be? Why didn’t they ditch them? Or maybe they just didn’t realize how close to death they were. Maybe I could narrow my Antarctica topic to those rocks.

Maybe my topic could be something like The rocks that Scott and his crew found in Antarctica that prove continental drift. Maybe my research question could be: How did Scott’s explorers choose the rocks they kept? Or maybe I should stick with why Scott and his crew made bad decisions.

I should ask.

I think my professor is the only one who can tell me whether my question about the rocks has enough to do with Antarctica. Since she’s the one who will be grading my paper. But a librarian can help me figure out the other things. So Dr. Sanders and a librarian are next.

• Was Jada’s choice to start with Wikipedia a good choice? Why or why not?
• Have you ever skimmed resources first and then read more deeply later?
• At what points does Jada think about where to look for information?
• At the end of this session, Jada hasn’t yet settled on a research question. So what did she accomplish? What good was all this searching and thinking?

Our Answers

• Was Jada’s choice to start with Wikipedia a good choice? Although not usually cited in research papers, Wikipedia is a good place to learn more about all kinds of topics.  Information is usually general in nature and you can check out the references at the bottom of the page. Use those links to find additional resources. This may lead you to library based sources like subject dictionaries, encyclopedias, or guides.
• Have you ever skimmed resources first and then read more deeply later? When first exploring your topic you may choose to skim resources. That is a very brief read looking for interesting and useful information. Later when you select a topic and look for resources that provide deeper, more focused information.
• At what points does Jada think about where to look for information? After receiving the core part of the topic (Antarctica), she begins looking for general information and becomes curious about the Scott expedition. As she learns more she thinks about where she can look for additional information, such as the diary mentioned in Wikipedia..
• At the end of this session, Jada hasn’t yet settled on a research question. So what did she accomplish? What good was all this searching and thinking? The background information that Jada looked at helped her to focus on the problems with the Scott Expedition. She slowly narrows down some of the issues and centers on the weight of the rocks.  She considers two different questions (one more narrow than the other) and intends to seek input from the professor and librarian.  Taking the time to explore her topic has given her ideas useful for a solid research question.

Exercise: Determine the Topic Order

Critical Thinking in Academic Research Copyright © 2022 by Cindy Gruwell and Robin Ewing is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Chapter 1: Research Questions

Narrowing a topic.

For many students, having to start with a research question is the biggest difference between how they did research in high school and how they are required to carry out their college research projects. It’s a process of working from the outside in: you start with the world of all possible topics (or your assigned topic) and narrow down until you’ve focused your interest enough to be able to tell precisely what you want to find out instead of only what you want to “write about.”

Process of Narrowing a Topic

Visualize narrowing a topic as starting with all possible topics and choosing narrower and narrower subsets until you have a specific enough topic to form a research question.

All Possible Topics —You’ll need to narrow your topic in order to do research effectively. Without specific areas of focus, it will be hard to even know where to begin.

Assigned Topics —Ideas about a narrower topic can come from anywhere. Often, a narrower topic boils down to deciding what’s interesting to you. One way to get ideas is to read background information in a source like Wikipedia.

Topic Narrowed by Initial Exploration —It’s wise to do some more reading about that narrower topic to a) learn more about it and b) learn specialized terms used by professionals and scholars who study it.

Topic Narrowed to Research Question(s) —A research question defines exactly what you are trying to find out. It will influence most of the steps you take to conduct the research.

ACTIVITY: Which Topic Is Narrower?

Open activity in a web browser.

Why Narrow a Topic?

Once you have a need for research—say, an assignment—you may need to prowl around a bit online to explore the topic and figure out what you actually want to find out and write about.

For instance, maybe your assignment is to develop a poster about “spring” for an introductory horticulture course. The instructor expects you to narrow that topic to something you are interested in and that is related to your class.

Another way to view a narrowed topic is as a sliver of the whole topic.

Ideas about a narrower topic can come from anywhere. In this case, a narrower topic boils down to deciding what’s interesting to you about “spring” that is related to what you’re learning in your horticulture class and small enough to manage in the time you have.

One way to get ideas would be to read about spring in Wikipedia, looking for things that seem interesting and relevant to your class, and then letting one thing lead to another as you keep reading and thinking about likely possibilities that are more narrow than the enormous “spring” topic. (Be sure to pay attention to the references at the bottom of most Wikipedia pages and pursue any that look interesting. Your instructor is not likely to let you cite Wikipedia, but those references may be citable scholarly sources that you could eventually decide to use.)

Or, instead, if it is spring at the time you could start by just looking around, admire the blooming trees on campus, and decide you’d like your poster to be about bud development on your favorites, the crabapple trees.

• Choosing & Using Sources: A Guide to Academic Research. Authored by : Teaching & Learning, Ohio State University Libraries. Provided by : The Ohio State University. Located at : https://osu.pb.unizin.org/choosingsources/ . License : CC BY: Attribution

Developing a Research Topic: Narrowing Your Topic

• Narrowing Your Topic
• Research & Writing Help

Narrowing your Topic

Often you have a topic you are interested in, but the topic is too broad for your project. Think about the length of your paper or presentation when deciding how narrow you should make your topic. Sometimes starting your research will help you narrow down your topic. Search for information on your topic, and scan through the results or read an overview of the topic to figure out what aspect of the topic most interests you. Or, ask yourself some of these questions to help narrow down your topic.

• The five W’s – who, what, when, where, & why.
• Can you focus your project on a specific aspect of the topic? What do you want to find out about this topic?
• Can you narrow your topic to a specific time period or a specific event?
• Can you narrow your topic to a specific geographic area?
• Is there a specific purpose you have for researching this topic?
• Compare/Contrast
• Cause/Effect
• Problem/Solution
• Opinion/Reason
• Virginia Tech: Strategies for Narrowing a Topic
• Writing @ CSU: Narrowing Topics
• BYU Library: Step-by-Step Guide & Research Rescue: Finding and Narrowing Your Topic

Circling the Lighthouse

Finding a topic for a research paper is like photographing a lighthouse. They're all interesting, and they have all been photographed or written about before.  Why do people keep coming back to them? Maybe it's because someone comes along and draws our attention to a new detail or story.

First, you need more detail. You need to study the lighthouse, or your topic, in order to examine it from every angle. By “circling” the lighthouse (your topic) you may find a new angle for your paper.

Good research is not just about compiling facts. It also asks and answers key questions about the topic at hand.

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• A Research Guide
• Research Paper Guide

How to Narrow Down a Research Topic?

• Why narrowing the research topic
• Step-by-step guide

Strategies for narrowing the research topic

Narrowing topic example, why narrowing the research topic boosts your study.

• Enhances your comprehension of the selected topic, aligning you with the specialized vocabulary and concepts employed by scholars in the field.
• Allows your investigation to be enriched with contextual insights.

Step-by-step guide for narrowing topic

Step 1: initial brainstorming and exploration., step 2: define the goals., step 3: narrowing focus., step 4: include a literature review., step 5: finalize a topic., methodology, relationship, combination.

• Writing a Research Paper
• Research Paper Title
• Research Paper Sources
• Research Paper Problem Statement
• Research Paper Thesis Statement
• Hypothesis for a Research Paper
• Research Question
• Research Paper Outline
• Research Paper Summary
• Research Paper Prospectus
• Research Paper Proposal
• Research Paper Format
• Research Paper Styles
• AMA Style Research Paper
• MLA Style Research Paper
• Chicago Style Research Paper
• APA Style Research Paper
• Research Paper Structure
• Research Paper Cover Page
• Research Paper Abstract
• Research Paper Introduction
• Research Paper Body Paragraph
• Research Paper Literature Review
• Research Paper Background
• Research Paper Methods Section
• Research Paper Results Section
• Research Paper Discussion Section
• Research Paper Conclusion
• Research Paper Appendix
• Research Paper Bibliography
• APA Reference Page
• Annotated Bibliography
• Bibliography vs Works Cited vs References Page
• Research Paper Types
• What is Qualitative Research

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• Starting the research process

How to Choose a Dissertation Topic | 8 Steps to Follow

Published on November 11, 2022 by Shona McCombes and Tegan George. Revised on November 20, 2023.

Choosing your dissertation topic is the first step in making sure your research goes as smoothly as possible. When choosing a topic, it’s important to consider:

• Your institution and department’s requirements
• Your areas of knowledge and interest
• The scientific, social, or practical relevance
• The availability of data and resources
• The timeframe of your dissertation
• The relevance of your topic

You can follow these steps to begin narrowing down your ideas.

Table of contents

Step 1: check the requirements, step 2: choose a broad field of research, step 3: look for books and articles, step 4: find a niche, step 5: consider the type of research, step 6: determine the relevance, step 7: make sure it’s plausible, step 8: get your topic approved, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about dissertation topics.

The very first step is to check your program’s requirements. This determines the scope of what it is possible for you to research.

• Is there a minimum and maximum word count?
• When is the deadline?
• Should the research have an academic or a professional orientation?
• Are there any methodological conditions? Do you have to conduct fieldwork, or use specific types of sources?

Some programs have stricter requirements than others. You might be given nothing more than a word count and a deadline, or you might have a restricted list of topics and approaches to choose from. If in doubt about what is expected of you, always ask your supervisor or department coordinator.

Start by thinking about your areas of interest within the subject you’re studying. Examples of broad ideas include:

• Twentieth-century literature
• Economic history
• Health policy

To get a more specific sense of the current state of research on your potential topic, skim through a few recent issues of the top journals in your field. Be sure to check out their most-cited articles in particular. For inspiration, you can also search Google Scholar , subject-specific databases , and your university library’s resources.

As you read, note down any specific ideas that interest you and make a shortlist of possible topics. If you’ve written other papers, such as a 3rd-year paper or a conference paper, consider how those topics can be broadened into a dissertation.

After doing some initial reading, it’s time to start narrowing down options for your potential topic. This can be a gradual process, and should get more and more specific as you go. For example, from the ideas above, you might narrow it down like this:

• Twentieth-century literature   Twentieth-century Irish literature   Post-war Irish poetry
• Economic history   European economic history   German labor union history
• Health policy   Reproductive health policy   Reproductive rights in South America

All of these topics are still broad enough that you’ll find a huge amount of books and articles about them. Try to find a specific niche where you can make your mark, such as: something not many people have researched yet, a question that’s still being debated, or a very current practical issue.

At this stage, make sure you have a few backup ideas — there’s still time to change your focus. If your topic doesn’t make it through the next few steps, you can try a different one. Later, you will narrow your focus down even more in your problem statement and research questions .

There are many different types of research , so at this stage, it’s a good idea to start thinking about what kind of approach you’ll take to your topic. Will you mainly focus on:

• Collecting original data (e.g., experimental or field research)?
• Analyzing existing data (e.g., national statistics, public records, or archives)?
• Interpreting cultural objects (e.g., novels, films, or paintings)?
• Comparing scholarly approaches (e.g., theories, methods, or interpretations)?

Many dissertations will combine more than one of these. Sometimes the type of research is obvious: if your topic is post-war Irish poetry, you will probably mainly be interpreting poems. But in other cases, there are several possible approaches. If your topic is reproductive rights in South America, you could analyze public policy documents and media coverage, or you could gather original data through interviews and surveys .

You don’t have to finalize your research design and methods yet, but the type of research will influence which aspects of the topic it’s possible to address, so it’s wise to consider this as you narrow down your ideas.

It’s important that your topic is interesting to you, but you’ll also have to make sure it’s academically, socially or practically relevant to your field.

• Academic relevance means that the research can fill a gap in knowledge or contribute to a scholarly debate in your field.
• Social relevance means that the research can advance our understanding of society and inform social change.
• Practical relevance means that the research can be applied to solve concrete problems or improve real-life processes.

The easiest way to make sure your research is relevant is to choose a topic that is clearly connected to current issues or debates, either in society at large or in your academic discipline. The relevance must be clearly stated when you define your research problem .

Before you make a final decision on your topic, consider again the length of your dissertation, the timeframe in which you have to complete it, and the practicalities of conducting the research.

Will you have enough time to read all the most important academic literature on this topic? If there’s too much information to tackle, consider narrowing your focus even more.

Will you be able to find enough sources or gather enough data to fulfil the requirements of the dissertation? If you think you might struggle to find information, consider broadening or shifting your focus.

Do you have to go to a specific location to gather data on the topic? Make sure that you have enough funding and practical access.

Last but not least, will the topic hold your interest for the length of the research process? To stay motivated, it’s important to choose something you’re enthusiastic about!

Most programmes will require you to submit a brief description of your topic, called a research prospectus or proposal .

Remember, if you discover that your topic is not as strong as you thought it was, it’s usually acceptable to change your mind and switch focus early in the dissertation process. Just make sure you have enough time to start on a new topic, and always check with your supervisor or department.

If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

Methodology

• Sampling methods
• Simple random sampling
• Stratified sampling
• Cluster sampling
• Likert scales
• Reproducibility

 Statistics

• Null hypothesis
• Statistical power
• Probability distribution
• Effect size
• Poisson distribution

Research bias

• Optimism bias
• Cognitive bias
• Implicit bias
• Hawthorne effect
• Anchoring bias
• Explicit bias

Formulating a main research question can be a difficult task. Overall, your question should contribute to solving the problem that you have defined in your problem statement .

However, it should also fulfill criteria in three main areas:

• Researchability
• Feasibility and specificity
• Relevance and originality

All research questions should be:

• Focused on a single problem or issue
• Researchable using primary and/or secondary sources
• Feasible to answer within the timeframe and practical constraints
• Specific enough to answer thoroughly
• Complex enough to develop the answer over the space of a paper or thesis
• Relevant to your field of study and/or society more broadly

You can assess information and arguments critically by asking certain questions about the source. You can use the CRAAP test , focusing on the currency , relevance , authority , accuracy , and purpose of a source of information.

Ask questions such as:

• Who is the author? Are they an expert?
• Why did the author publish it? What is their motivation?
• How do they make their argument? Is it backed up by evidence?

A dissertation prospectus or proposal describes what or who you plan to research for your dissertation. It delves into why, when, where, and how you will do your research, as well as helps you choose a type of research to pursue. You should also determine whether you plan to pursue qualitative or quantitative methods and what your research design will look like.

It should outline all of the decisions you have taken about your project, from your dissertation topic to your hypotheses and research objectives , ready to be approved by your supervisor or committee.

Note that some departments require a defense component, where you present your prospectus to your committee orally.

The best way to remember the difference between a research plan and a research proposal is that they have fundamentally different audiences. A research plan helps you, the researcher, organize your thoughts. On the other hand, a dissertation proposal or research proposal aims to convince others (e.g., a supervisor, a funding body, or a dissertation committee) that your research topic is relevant and worthy of being conducted.

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McCombes, S. & George, T. (2023, November 20). How to Choose a Dissertation Topic | 8 Steps to Follow. Scribbr. Retrieved April 2, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/research-process/dissertation-topic/

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Narrowing your research topic

Contributors: Derrian Goebel

Narrowing a research topic is moving from a general topic, like global warming, to a tighter research focus, such as helping the environment by improving travel modes (example below). However, you can’t just forget about the big picture—how your argument/claim fits into the bigger discussion including connections to other viewpoints on your topic.

To ensure a connection with other viewpoints and the bigger picture, ask yourself some questions when revising your paper:

• Are you showing readers how your narrowed topic effects, or relates to, the bigger picture?
• When going through each topic point, do you acknowledge opposing viewpoints?
• When you are ready to relate your narrowed topic to the bigger picture, do you mention other topics included in the larger discussion?

Example: Solving Global Warming—Do Something

• Plant trees
• Best travel

Bigger picture

“Solving Global Warming—Do Something” is the larger discussion about climate change and the environment. “Use less,” “plant trees” and “be a catalyst” are some branches stemming from the larger discussion. The “best travel” topic is only one part of the global warming bigger picture. Articulate the multiple standpoints within the bigger picture :

• So, for example in the previous picture, you will need to be able to locate your narrowed topic (best travel) in relation to the other parts of the main issue.
• Show your readers how your focused subject is connected to these other conversations.

Narrowed research topic

How people can buy hybrid/electric cars, car pool with co-workers, walk, bike or use public transportation (above). Opposing viewpoints are ones that argue within your focused area.

Explore the multiple arguments, perspectives and alternative positions within your narrowed research topic:

• Take the time and give fair consideration to these other perspectives, which will benefit your argument by offering readers a fair report.

For example, not everyone will live close enough to their work to walk or ride a bike. These, too, are parts of the argument—they are the alternative point(s) of view.

• If you can argue, then do so: “People may not be able to walk or ride a bike, but what about the bus?” Otherwise, it is best to simply acknowledge and move on: “…which is a good point.” This is an example of fair reporting.

So overall, when your teacher asks you to focus your research, don’t forget that connection to the bigger discussion in which you were initially interested. Also, don’t forget other opinions for a fair and balanced essay.

• Library databases
• Library website

Choosing Your Topic: Example Topics

What is a manageable topic.

A manageable topic is a topic that isn't too broad or too narrow.  A topic that is too narrow will find very few, if any, results.

Broad topics:

A topic that is too broad focuses on one important concept. This kind of search will will find thousands of results for you to look through. These are examples of broad topics:

health care

Narrow topics

A topic that is too narrow usually has many concepts, or focuses on a specific geographic area or group. This type of search will find few, if any, results. These are examples of narrow topics:

• keywords: burnout, neonatal nurses, 30-40, Chicago
• keywords: academic achievement, 3rd graders, Florida, private schools
• keywords: drought, bird migration, Mississippi River, Wabasha County, Minnesota

Manageable topic

A manageable topic generally focuses on two to three important concepts. This allows a search to bring back enough information without having to look through thousands of items.These are examples of  manageable topics:

• keywords: leadership, employee retention
• keywords: socioeconomic status, academic achievement, elementary schools

What makes these topics problematic in terms of research?

This is very broad. What about obesity? Causes? Effects? Relationship to other issues? Add concepts to build a topic that is a better research choice.

Does mentoring improve the academic achievement of African American males in high school?

This is a fairly specific topic that includes concepts that are often researched. The topic may be fine for your paper, but you may need to remove some of the concepts when you search for articles. For example, many researchers will not limit their study to one gender, but they may include a gender breakdown in their results.

Does maternal attachment affect the ability of future accountants to comply with Sarbanes Oxley?

This exact topic is probably not of interest to researchers. While there are some researchers looking at maternal attachment and others who research Sarbanes Oxley, it's extremely unlikely that research has tied the two together.

What factors influence the growth of farmers' markets in Miami?

The addition of a location to this topic may result in very few results. Depending on the type of research you are doing (discussion, paper, dissertation), you may want to remove the geographic limit. Both the scope and the purpose of your research project will affect whether this topic needs to be refined.

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• Choosing a Research Topic
• 3. Narrow Your Topic / Thesis Statements

Narrow Your Topic

Once you have completed your background research, you will want to start narrowing down your topic a little further. You probably learned a ton of new information about your topic when you were doing your background research, but you cannot write about everything. You need to focus your ideas into one clear, concise research question.

The good news for you is that you already started subconsciously doing this before you began your background research, when you were brainstorming ideas in your concept map. Now that you have done your background research, you're ready to narrow down your topic further and develop a research question and a thesis statement.

What is the difference between a research question and a thesis statement?

The reason that we do research in the first place is to answer a question.

Your research question is the question that you answer while you complete your assignment. Think of your research question as your topic, but in question form.

Research Topic: Cost of college tuition.

Example: How does student loan debt affect students below the poverty line?

Your thesis statement is the answer to your research question. You will spend your whole paper working to prove your thesis statement.

Example: Student loan debt affects students below the poverty line by further hindering their ability to purchase a home, have a family, and pay off their debt.

What makes a good thesis statement?

As you narrow down your topic and develop your thesis, keep in mind, a thesis statement should:

• Clearly answer your research question. Your thesis statement is the answer to that question.
• Outline the position you will take in your paper. Your reader should know exactly what point you are making in your paper.
• Show how you will support your position. Your reader should know exactly how you will support your position.
• Have multiple sides to the issue. Your thesis should not be a common fact or something that can be answered with a "yes" or "no."
• Be flexible. It is common and normal if your thesis statement ends up changing during the research process. As you learn more, your position may change. 

The below video from Scribbr gives a great overview of how to write a strong thesis statement for an argument essay.

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• University of Michigan Library
• Research Guides

Finding and Exploring Your Topic

• Narrowing/Broadening Your Topic
• General Brainstorming
• Subject-Specific Brainstorming
• Understanding Your Topic

Brainstorming

A bubble chart like the one below can help you brainstorm different ways that your topic can be narrowed or broadened.

Narrowing Your Topic

Sometimes a topic that seems like the right size for your paper can seem way too big after you’ve learned a little more about it.   When this happens, you need to narrow the focus of your paper.   You can do this by considering different ways to restrict your paper topic.

Some of the ways you can limit your paper topic are by:

• Who – population or group (e.g., college students; women; Asian Americans)
• What – discipline or focus (e.g., sociological or historical perspective)
• Where – geographic location (e.g., United States; universities; small towns)
• When – time period or era (19 th century; Renaissance; Vietnam War)
• Why – why is the topic important? (to the class, to the field, or to you)

For example, a paper about alcohol use would be very broad.   But a paper about reasons for alcohol abuse by female college students in the United States during the 1990s might be just right.

Goldilocker: An Online Tool For Narrowing Your Topic

The University of Michigan Library Learning and Teaching Team has created an online tool to help you narrow your topic.  The Goldilocker tool can be used as a stand alone/personal exercise to articulate your topic in a much more narrow fashion.  It can also be used in conjunction with University of Michigan courses and classes outside of the university.  

Broadening Your Topic

Sometimes you will find that your topic is too narrow - there is not enough published on your topic.  When this happens, you can try to broaden your topic.  There are a couple of strategies you can try when broadening your topic.

One strategy is to choose less specific terms for your search, e.g., standardized tests instead of SATs, or performance-enhancing drugs instead of anabolic steroids.

Another strategy is to broaden your topic by changing or removing limits or filters from your topic:

• Who - population or group (e.g., instead of college students, choose a broader section of the population)
• What  - discipline or focus (e.g., instead of choosing a sociological perspective, look at a number of perspectives)
• Where  - geographic location (e.g., instead of Michigan, choose United States)
• When  - time period or era (e.g., instead of 1984, choose 1980s or 20th century)

For example, a paper about alcohol use by college students at the University of Michigan in 1984 might be too narrow of a focus.  But a paper about alcohol use by college students in the 1980s might be just right.

• Need a Topic?
• Form a Research Position
• Background Research
• Brainstorming Strategies This link opens in a new window

Narrow Down Your Topic: Example #1

Narrow down your topic: example #2, try narrowing down your topic....

• Choosing Keywords
• Find Articles
• Get Help This link opens in a new window

Forming a Research Question

Topic Development

Concept Map

Topics/Thesis

• #1 Blank Worksheet Complete the attached Topic Development / Pre-Search Worksheet.
• #2 Blank Worksheet (Long Version) Complete the attached Research Exploration Form.
• #2 Fracking Example (Long Version - with additional Social Justice questions)
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• Last Updated: Mar 15, 2024 9:26 AM
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1 Narrowing a Topic

Defining your research question is a process of working from the outside in: you start with the world of all possible topics (or your assigned topic) and narrow down until you have focused your interest enough to be able to state precisely what you want to find out, instead of only what you want to “write about.”

Going through this process can be the hardest part of doing research, but once you have a question that is realistically scoped (not too broad, not too narrow) it will guide the rest of your work.

 The Process of Narrowing a Topic

ACTIVITY: Which Topic is Narrower? 

Now it’s your turn. Practice thinking about narrower topics with these 3 examples. Click the arrow to show the next question.

TIP: Use Some of the 5 WS to Help Narrow Your Topic to a Searchable Question

Your assignment is to write on the topic of higher education. You decide you want to write about the high cost of tuition, but that is still too broad.

Start by asking some or all of the following questions.

From asking these questions, you might come up with a research question like this:

“How does the high cost of tuition impact the degree completion of mature college students?”

Doing Research Copyright © 2019 by Celia Brinkerhoff is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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How do I: Define and narrow your topic

• Define and narrow your topic
• Brainstorm keywords
• Create a search strategy
• find background information?
• find books?
• find articles?
• find multimedia?
• find scholarly websites?
• improve my search?
• Dissertations
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• evaluate sources? This link opens in a new window
• Cite your sources
• Read a citation
• Find citing references
• reserve a study room?

Narrow or Broaden

Unpacking your assignment.

Have you been assigned a topic or can you chose your own?

→The "Developing A Topic" video can help you if you are choosing your own topic (see below).

How many pages will your paper be? Or how long will your presentation be?

Are you required to use a certain number of books or journal articles?

Are you required to include specific types of research resources such as scholarly, peer-reviewed, primary, current?

What is the purpose of your assignment? Can you explain it to a friend?

→Note prompts from your professor like "compare and contrast"; "trace the development of"; "construct a well-researched argument"; "support your conclusion" to know what your assignment should do. If you still don't understand, ask!

When is it due?

→Create a time line that breaks up the work into chunks:

·          Do background reading to understand the topic--what are the important issues, people, events, vocabulary? Use your text and subject encyclopedias

·          Put your topic into a question form--your paper is the answer to the question.

·          Gather keywords for searches in the library catalog and appropriate library databases. Ask for help from a librarian if needed.

·          Gather your materials, read, highlight and/or take notes.

·          Write a draft of your paper. Get feedback from a classmate, The Writing & Media Lab, or your professor.

·          Write final version of your paper.

·          Make your bibliography or works cited page. The library has tools to help with this.

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Getting Started: Information Research Tips

Narrowing a topic.

• Flow of Information
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• Dictionaries
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• Broadening a Topic
• How to Read a Citation
• How to Read a Call Number
• About Journal Articles
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If your topic is too broad or vague you will find too much information and will need to narrow the focus.

Example: I'm thinking of doing a paper on "fashion." This topic could develop in many different ways.

Hint: Ask Yourself Questions About Your Topic:

• What do you know about it? What don't you know?
• What aspects of your topic interest you: historical, sociological, psychological, etc.?
• What time period do you want to cover?
• On what geographic region do you want to focus?
• A brief summary or a lengthy explanation?
• Periodical articles, books, essays, encyclopedia articles?
• Statistics?

Sample Topic Narrowing Chart:

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How to Narrow Down a Research Topic Succesfully

Narrowing a research topic can be hectic, but it is important to do it upfront to ensure your research workflows well. However, this depends on the number of words, the research should have. Do you know how to narrow a research topic? We will provide an overview on narrowing down a topic.

Are you looking for online research paper help? We have the best professional writers that will turn your ideas into quality research papers. Our expert writers help students in college and university. Thereby, be assured of quality work that will gain you top grades at cheap prices.

How to Find a Research Topic?

This depends on your field of study, through this, you will be able to research a relevant topic that you can work on. Getting a research topic should be based on what you want to focus on. A narrow topic will help make it easier to do your research.

Enquire From The Professor – While searching for a research topic, request advice from your professor or supervisor to ensure you get the best topic for your course. In some cases, the supervisors can narrow down on the type of research that you can do. Thereby, making it easier for you to choose a topic. Check The Resources Available – It depends on the number of resources you have. It wouldn’t be right to do a topic that will require you to travel a long distance to go collect your data. Even though there are various ways you can collect data online, it is better when it is an accessible place to get information upfront. What is Your Interest or Hobby? – Your research topic should be based on your hobbies or interests. It shouldn’t just be a topic, but one that you feel most interested in. This will give you the zeal to research more and do your best to provide the best paper to your professor. Your interests will make sure that you are highly motivated to carry out your research in college or university. As time goes by, when you further your studies, you can still do broader research on the same. Previously Done Research – While choosing a topic, ensure there is evidence of previous research on it. It might be hectic if you decide to just do a topic that no one else has ever dealt with. Remember to stick to your field and not just do anything for the sake. There is a wide variety of narrowing a topic examples that you can use as a starting point. The topic needs to be researchable to prevent you from getting issues when carrying out your research. Ideas From Books – Getting a place to begin may be hectic at first. You can even get an idea from books you have been reading and strike an interest. Always choose a topic that sounds interesting. There are a wide variety of books that you can use to get ideas. However, try to get a narrow topic from the broad topics.

How to Narrow Down a Topic

Now that you have gotten a suitable general topic, we can work on how to narrow down the topic. You can either decide to use one or two of the methods. However, using a combination of the methods is most suitable.

Ask Yourself the Three W’s And H.

While choosing a topic you need to ask yourself, why, what, where, when, how, and who? This will help you know whether the topic of interest is good

One of many narrow topic examples includes: Examine food security impact on health in America. Who? People in America

What? Food security

When? Currently in the 21 st century

Where? America – which state specifically?

Why? The impact of food security on health

How? Food security impact.

Through that, you can see whether your general topic is relevant and how to break it down.

Ask Further Questions

On this, you need to consider whether the topic is going to be of importance a few years from now or is just going to be relevant at the moment. In this, ask yourself about the problems, the effect on the target group, how the target group benefits, and the group responsible for it.

Hence, in this, you will research how food security impacts the target people. What problems can be faced if it is not achieved? On this, get to know the motives and effect on the people the food is intended for.

Narrowing down a research topic helps you get a better overview of what you are researching. You can check other scholarly articles to know what people have previously researched and the gap left to fill.

Consider Using the SOCRAPR Model

Take your research topic and narrow it down using the SOCRAPR model . With this, consider these different aspects.

Similarities – How is food security now compared to earlier years? Opposites – How has food security changed over the years? Contrast – How is food security affecting the kind of health people have? Relationship – This is between the accessibility of food and its impact on health. Anthropomorphism – This is in terms of human values – how the lack or plenty of food affects human behaviors. Personification – Give descriptions of human qualities. Repetition – Will food security establishment be a recurring thing?

Compare and Contrast Other Research Papers

You need to compare and contrast previously done papers on the same. This will provide a greater overview of what to expect. While comparing, you will get some great ideas on what to expect and the kind of points that you can write.

You can choose a topic that deals with comparing or contrasting two elements. For example, how food security had an impact on health in the 20 th century as compared to the 21 st century.

Try to read any scholarly articles you can get on the same and gather all the information that seems relevant to your research.

Remember to familiarize yourself with the topic and know how a compare and contrast research topic is done. Think about the topic as two mini papers you are doing while comparing.

The Dangers of Not Narrowing Down A Research Topic

If you work with a general topic be assured that it will be hectic to do the research. However, if you narrow down the topic to minimal it will be easier to narrow down the topic.

Too Much Irrelevant Information. If you do not narrow down a research topic, you will have too much irrelevant information. This will make it hard to know the kind of information to include or omit. It is like going to a store with a wide variety of clothes that look fabulous. You will be caught in between and not know the best one to choose. Hence, narrowing down, makes it easier to choose the resources to use. Difficulty in Coming up With A Clear Framework. It can be hectic to come up with a clear framework to address a research problem. However, if you are working with a straight topic, you will be able to get a clear framework to do your research. A broad topic can make it hard to find the right method you can use for analysis. Lack of Specific Information That Fits. When the topic is too broad, you get too much irrelevant information or relevant information that will make it hard to decide what to put and what to leave out. Getting the specific information that fits can then take you a while.

Hence, broad topic examples can affect how well you will carry out your research. The topic should be educational for at most relevance. Yes, there might be enough information that doesn’t fit your study.

The Best Tips on How to Narrow Down a Research Topic

This is how you can narrow down a research topic through the aspects, methodology, time, place, and type. However, you can either use some of the tips or a combination of all. In the end, it depends on your preference.

Consider the Aspect

From what view would you want to research your topic?

For example in our food security topic, consider finding out, whether the impact on health is different in different age groups; the young and the old.

This will help make you focus on what’s relevant most. Get to know how the initial topic can be partitioned into smaller components for analysis. This will make it easier to focus on the specifics and get relevant information

Methodology to Use

What kind of research methodology are you planning to use in your research? This will help provide a better overview of the research that you should expect to do.

Is it going to be a qualitative or quantitative research paper? Narrow down to what kind of methods are most specific for that specific region. Collection of data is a major factor that you shouldn’t take for granted.

Narrowing it down to a specific area will help make the research much easier to do. However, if it is a global issue, you can consider choosing a larger area. Your scope of the study should cover all the relevant information to make your research paper a success.

For example, where specifically in America? How many states are you planning to study?

Relationship

Get to know your two major variables and see how they relate to each other. Designing a study around the correlation of different variables will put you in a better place.

For example food and health. Those are our major variables as we try to find out how best they relate. Other examples are: cause and effect, compare and contrast, currently or historically, male and female, and opinion and reason.

Thereby, this will make doing the research easier.

At what phase, century or time do you want your research to be based. Is it during the historical or current period? Studies need to be based on the current timeframes. For example, food security impact on health in Washington DC during the 21 st century . Having a specific timeframe makes it easy to perform the research. Remember that different periods have different circumstances and causes.

Don’t Know How To Narrow Your Research Topic?

Remember to narrow down a research topic, you need to first choose a general topic, giving a specific description of the topic, ask yourself questions on the topic, mention the specific aspects in the topic, narrow down the specifics of the topics, turn the topic into a sentence or statement, and get to know the specific place that you want to do the research. How to narrow a topic is easy if you follow all the relevant steps.

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Research Process: Getting Started: D. Broaden/Narrow Topic

• A. Define Your Topic

B. Create Research Questions

• C. Identify Concepts
• D. Broaden/Narrow Topic
• A. Current vs. Historical Information
• B. Popular vs. Scholarly
• C. Primary vs. Secondary Sources
• A. Search Tools
• B. Search Strategies
• c. Research Guides
• A. Why Evaluate?
• B. Guide to Evaluating Sources
• A. Background on Citing Sources
• B. How to Cite

Subsections

A. Define Topic

C. Identify Key Concepts

D. Broaden/Narrow Your Topic

Broaden/Narrow Topic

Once you begin searching for information in sources, you may end up with an overwhelming number of results. This may be because your topic is too broad. On the other hand, if your search is not returning any results, it may be because your topic is too narrow and you need to choose more general search terms.

If your search is returning too many results, you can add more specific terms to your topic or question.

Sample Topics

Topic: student time management issues

Search Terms: students, time management, problems

Topic: Th e impact of undergraduate student time management problems on academic achievement

Search Terms: higher education, students, time management, academic performance

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Top 10 research topics for students.

Table of Contents

Is your dissertation just around the corner? Are you spending all day thinking about “research topic ideas for students”? What topic would make you stand out from the crowd? That’s a tough question, but definitely not an impossible one! In this blog, we will help you find research topic examples for students, or give you a direction for it. Let’s begin! 

What is a Research Paper?

In the 21st century, writing a research paper has become one of the most crucial parts of most academic degrees. While it may not be necessary, it is best to write one as your research paper can get you into your dream college sometimes! 

A Research Paper is a kind of academic writing that provides data, interpretation, and analysis of a Research Question. In some universities, writing a research paper is often a part of their academic curriculum, that is often referred to as ‘Dissertation”. 

Why should students write research papers?

You might sometimes wonder how a research paper will help you in life? The truth is, there are many reasons why students should engage in research writing early in their studies. Some of these benefits include:

• It helps students excel at research writing for their higher studies.
• Enables students to acquire firsthand knowledge, discover new facts, and even get published.
• Students get a chance to make useful connections with professors and other researchers.
• Writing a unique research paper gives students recognition and credits in many universities.

What makes a Research good?

Writing a good research paper requires a lot of effort and critical thinking. But imagine, if a class of 115 students is writing research papers, then whose paper will stand out? There are some factors that make a research paper unique and recognized. Let’s see what they are.

• Research Topic must be crisp, self-explanatory, and unique.
• The paper must be reliable and valid.
• Appropriate research methods must be used as per the topic.
• The objective of the research must be clearly stated.
• The collection of data and interpretation must be done in the right manner.

What are some research topics for students?

Choosing a research topic can become a tiring process, especially when you have no idea which direction to go in. In this section of the blog, we will help you with some research title examples for students, and how to choose your choice of research topic. 

To choose a research topic of your choice:

• Lean into your interest in the topic : For example, if you are interested in studying human psychology, then narrow it down to the field of psychology you would like to research about. 
• Look for topics : Now suppose, you have narrowed down your choice to Child Psychology. The next step is to look for topics that have enough information for research, and ones that are easily accessible.
• Guidelines & Ethics : Make sure the topic that you are finalising falls in line with the guidelines that your university/guide/professor has provided. For example, researching “Autism in Children” will not help you if your guidelines clearly state research on adults.

Given below are some Research Topic examples that you can choose for your paper, or get an idea from. Let’s dive in and get you that A+ and your dream university!

• Religion and Globalization – Students can choose this topic to study if there is any relationship between religion and globalisation, and how religions are making use of global communications.
• Body Shaming & Its Impact on Mental Wellness and Emotional Expressivity – Many people are victims of body shaming from a very young age. Research on how body shaming impacts a person’s self-worth and other factors can be studied.
• AI and its impact on various businesses – How is Artificial Intelligence impacting different businesses? Is it a boon or a bane for certain businesses?
• Relationship between multilingualism and socialization – Can being multilingual boost socialization among people? Do people feel more safe and comfortable around people who speak the same language in a different country?
• LGBTQ+ – What are the rights of people who are a part of the LGBTQ+ community? How accepting is today’s society towards the community?
• Impact of Climate Change on Happiness – Can climate change impact a person’s happiness? Does it have a significant impact on how a person feels?
• Work-Life Balance – What are workplaces doing to maintain work-life balance? Why is it important?
• Relationship between Technology and Risk Management? – How can technology play a role in Risk management? How does it help?
• Parenting Styles and its Impact on Children – Different parenting styles can have different impacts on children. Research about the consequences of different styles.
• Rapid Urbanization and its Social Impact – What are the positive and negative impacts of urbanisation?

Final Words

Finding a perfect research topic often seems impossible, and a very hectic task. But we hope this blog has helped you in finding your research interest, and formulating a topic. Writing a research paper can help students in various ways, such as developing academic writing skills. Moreover, many international universities appreciate and prefer students who have published their own research, as it portrays innovation and leadership skills. So, what are you waiting for? Get started on your research now! And if you still feel stuck deciding the topic, then you can refer to some AI tools as well. To know more about these tools, read this blog on Best AI Tools for Students in 2024 .

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