1. Selecting a topic area


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Researching and Developing a Topic You Like

Terms and concepts to know for this section:

Topic Development - the process of creating a topic that is interesting, feasible, and appropriate for an assignment. One of the most challenging aspects of research.

Preliminary Research - the process of familiarizing oneself with background information on a topic. Figuring out the who, what, where, when, and why of a topic; helps you create keywords for searching.

Stasis Theory - used by writers to critically analyze issues in an argument, and part of the PWP research process. Read more about it at Purdue OWL Links to an external site..

How do you decide what you want to research? In this section, you'll learn strategies on how to develop a research topic that is interesting, feasible, and that fits within the parameters of your assignment.

Choosing a Topic

At some point in your academic career, you've probably faced this situation: your instructor asks you to write a research paper, and says you can research a topic of your choosing. This seems great at first - you've got the freedom to work on anything that you choose! But this freedom can be intimidating - out of all the possible topics, how can you narrow your choice down to one? And how can you be sure if your topic is a good one? And of more immediate concern, how can you make sure it's something you can complete, with all the other stuff you have going on? This process is called topic development.

An example assignment might be: "Write a ten page essay on a public health topic related to college campuses." When you're given a prompt like this, ask yourself these types of questions:

What public health issues impact college students?

Substance abuse (alcohol, prescription drugs, illegal drugs etc.)
Infectious diseases (influenza, meningitis, tuberculosis, STIs, etc.)
Mental health (depression, anxiety, mental illness, etc.)
Nutrition and fitness (healthy eating, vegetarianism, regular exercise, etc.)

What is something I am interested in that I can relate to a public health issue?

Try to identify areas of overlap between these two questions. These areas of overlap will be great topics for your assignment.

For example, if you like sports, you might be interested in investigating the impact of traumatic brain injuries on college athletes.

Or maybe you got sick last year while living in a dorm, and want to investigate the impact of vaccinations on preventing the spread of disease on a college campus.

All of these would be great research topics to choose. When you take a few moments at the beginning of the semester to brainstorm ideas by yourself, with a friend, or with an instructor, you'll be surprised by how many great ideas you can generate. Don't feel so rushed to get started that you just pick the first topic that comes to you - if you don't like your topic at the beginning of the semester, you'll hate it by the end. A research assignment is an opportunity to learn more about a topic that you're interested in - take advantage of that!

Developing a Topic through Preliminary Research

Preliminary research helps you develop a topic that is well suited for your assignment. This critical stage of conducting research may help identify keywords that can be used when conducting further exploration of your topic. Some valuable resources to use at this stage are specialized encyclopedias, Google Wikipedia. These resources can provide you with an introduction to your topic, as well as background information of the key issues, terms, and ideas surrounding the topic. You aren't going to do all of your research using these resources, of course, but they can be a good way to pick up enough of the basics about a topic to give your research a jump start, especially if the topic is new to you. (You can use the Quick Links for Resources on the Home Page to find the resources mentioned above as additional sources that will help with other aspects of your research as you develop your topic.)

There are two questions that you should ask yourself during this stage of research:

Am I interested in this topic?
Can I find more information on this topic?

If during this stage the answer to either of the above questions is NO, consider revisiting your topic choice. The topic you come up with at the beginning of your research does not have to be what you ultimately use for your project. Even for scholars, picking a research topic is rarely a linear process - you can expect to go back and change your topic after conducting some preliminary research.