Research @ Reynolds Libraries

By NCSU Libraries

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Your first step towards a successful research endeavor is to choose a good topic.  A good topic should be:

• Interesting to you: It should be a topic that you want to know more about and can hold your interest to the end of your research.
• Neither too broad nor too narrow: A topic that is too broad may not be manageable within your time frame.  A topic that is too narrow may not be researchable with no or very few written documents available. 
• Well defined & focused:  Always try to state your topic as a question or sentence, which becomes the thesis statement.  This will help you clarify your thoughts and remain focused. 

Examples:

• Too broad: Fish
• Too narrow: How has fishing in the James River in Richmond, VA affected the smallmouth bass population?
• Well defined & focused: Howhas government fishing regulations in the United States affected the freshwater fish population? 

This video covers some online search techniques such as Boolean operators (AND & OR) as well as truncation (*). These search techniques are explained in Module 4b - Online Search Strategies in this tutorial.

If your topic is too broad or vague, you will find too much information and will need to narrow the focus.

Example: "I am thinking of doing a paper on health.”

Define your topic by asking the following questions:

• When you think of this broad topic, what specific issues interest you – careers in health care, specific mental disorders or diseases, the state of health care in the United States? All of these subtopics are facets of the much broader topic – health.
• What aspects of your topic interest you: business, history, legal, physical, psychological, social etc.?
• What time period do you want to cover?
• Do you want to focus on a geographic region or population?
• What kind of information do you need? (e.g., a brief summary or a lengthy explanation; periodical articles or books; statistics)

Sample Topic Narrowing Chart: 

Adapted from UCLA Library

If your topic is very specific or new, it will be difficult to find enough information to write your paper.

Example: “I am thinking of doing a paper on how fishing in the James River in Richmond, VA has affected the smallmouth bass population.”

This topic as stated is seeking to answer a question for which there may be no answer yet – there may be no or very little research or studies that have been conducted on this topic. How can this be turned into a more manageable topic?

Hint: Look for parallels and opportunities for broader associations:

• Rather than concentrate on a specific species of fish, examine more broad fish populations such as freshwater fish or saltwater fish.
• Examine larger geographic regions that are affected such as the United States.
• Identify the people or groups that encompass this topic such as fishermen or fish & wildlife government departments.
• Brainstorm for other issues related to this topic such as fishery management, fishery regulations, fishing licenses, fish stocking, etc.

Sample Topic Broadening Chart: 

Adapted from UCLA Library

Refining a Topic Handout

Refining a Topic Worksheet