Need topic ideas?
A great idea can come from anywhere! Here are some suggested places to start:
- Class discussions
- Assigned readings
- Personal interests
- Trending topics
- Browse journals in the field
Developing a Topic
Before you develop your research topic or question, you'll need to do some background research first. This will help you:
- begin to understand the context of your topic
- narrow the topic to a more manageable size
- direct you to where to do more specific searches
Try the library databases below to explore your topic. When you're ready, move on to refining your topic.
Find background information:
Now that you've done some background research, it's time to narrow your topic. Narrowing your research topic means moving from broad (textiles) to specific (future implications of wastewater disposal for textile manufacturers in North Carolina). Here are some suggestions for narrowing and defining your topic:
- Is there a specific subset of the topic you can focus on?
- Is there a cause and effect relationship you can explore?
- Is there an unanswered question on the subject?
- Can you focus on a specific time period or group of people?
Describe and develop your topic in some detail. Try filling in the blanks in the following sentence, as much as you can:
I want to research ____(what/who)____
and ____(what/who)____
in ____(where)____
during ____(when)____
because ____(why)____.