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Topic Development and Starting Your Search

Getting started with your research is often the most difficult part. This guide is designed to help you create a "researchable" topic and get started searching.

The Most Difficult Part of the Assignment

"Choose a topic related to the course that interests you."

This sentence (or something like it) is in so many assignments and syllabi, you would think picking a topic is the simplest part of the assignment.

In reality, this can be the most challenging part of the assignment: we may not know what interests us yet; or, we may have a general idea of what we want to explore, but when we start searching the information we find is too broad or isn't really relevant.

This guide is designed to help you with developing a topic that is "researchable": A topic that is neither too broad or too narrow, and for which we can find reliable information.

Starting Big - What is the larger focus?

Not sure where to start? It's always best to choose something that interests you, or that you are curious about - but what if you're not even sure about that?

Here are some strategies for figuring out what course topics might interest you:

  • The Assignment:Often the assignment gives you a specific topic, or the professor provides a list of topics to choose from. Read these. Highlight the ones that catch your attention. (Reading the assignment carefully will also help you as you begin to research and write.)
  • The Syllabus: Your syllabus will show the general topics the course will cover for each week, along with the assignments and readings. Read over these and highlight the ones that interest you (even if you haven't covered them in class yet).
  • Your Textbooks and Course Readings: Skim the Table of Contents of your textbook. You probably won't read every chapter of the books assigned in a course, but they will have lots of information on your subject, and can help you discover a topic you may not have thought of.
  • Wikipedia and Other Encyclopedias: Wikipedia can be an excellent place to start if all you have is a very general idea of what you want to research. Encyclopedias will often show related topics and vocabulary terms, people influential in the field, and related current events—all of which can help you focus your bigger idea into a "researchable" size.

Once you have an idea, you're now ready to begin developing your topic into a research question.