How to pick a research topic
When you are assigned a paper in women's history, how can you pick a specific topic for the paper?
Difficulty Level: Average Time Required: Varies
- Read and understand the limits of the assignment.
- Decide what interests you and can be related to the assignment.
- Check resources recommended by your teacher, including any course textbooks.
- Review information available on the Net to see what a subject matter expert recommends for resources. (About.com, for instance)
- Consult search engines to see if you can find additional information to supplement that recommended by a topic expert.
- Check for print resources at your school and public libraries.
- Check the library's card catalog for books.
- Check the Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature for articles
- Check online and print encyclopedias for overviews of the topic
- If you find too much information, narrow your topic to one part of the original topic
- If you've found too little information, broaden your topic or pick another topic
- Write one to two sentences describing your topic, to help you define it precisely
- If required in your course: get your teacher's approval for your choice of topic
Tips:
- You'll do a better job if you're interested in your topic, or even passionate about it.
- Use texts your teacher recommends and some you've discovered yourself, when writing the paper.
- Try to find an unusual aspect of the topic, that's still broad enough to find material for your research.
Related Features:
