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Choose & Refine a Topic
Choose & Refine a Topic
Choose & Refine a Topic
Choosing your topic is the first step in the research process, and it's not always easy getting started! Consider the following when developing your topic.
Tips for Choosing Your Topic
- Choose a subject area that interests you and that will interest the readers.
- Try to avoid topics that are overly broad (i.e. trade, inflation, economic development).
- Choose a topic that is academic in nature - something that people will be doing research on (otherwise you'll have a hard time finding sources).
View this video to learn how to develop a strong research question:
Exploring Your Topic
Do some background research on any subjects that you are interested in to gain a better understanding of the topic and see how your idea relates to broader, narrower, and related issues.
Some places to find background information:
- Encyclopedias and reference books
- Credible websites
- Library databases
Try any of the library databases or resources below to explore your topic. Once you have enough background information you can begin refining your topic. If you're having trouble finding information on your topic, ask a librarian for help.
Background Information
There are several resources you can use to find background information, for example:
- Opposing Viewpoints (Gale In Context)Provides contextual information and opinions on hundreds of today's hottest social issues. Features continuously updated viewpoints, topic overviews, full-text magazines, academic journals, news articles, primary source documents, statistics, images, videos, audio files and links to vetted websites.
- Issues & ControversiesExplores hundreds of hot topics in politics, government, business, society, education, and popular culture. Offers in-depth articles presenting both sides of an issue clearly, coherently, and without bias based on key facts, arguments, history, and current context.
- CQ Researcher (Sage)
CQ Researcher offers in-depth, unbiased coverage of today’s important issues and controversial subjects. Each report contains a “background,” “chronology,” “current situation,” and “pro-con” features. Graphics including photographs, tables, maps, and charts to help make sense of complex topics.
- Gale eBooksContains many reference works on a large variety of topics. Use this database for background information instead of Wikipedia.
- Credo Academic CoreStart your research here instead of Wikipedia. This reference eBook collection contains over 650 titles including subject encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases, and reference handbooks.
When researching your topic, remember to be prepared to be flexible! It is common to modify your topic during the research process... it happens more often than you might think. You may find too much information and need to narrow your focus, or too little information and need to broaden your focus. This is a normal part of the research process. When researching, you may not wish to change your topic completely, but instead decide that some other aspect of the topic is more interesting or manageable.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself to help you narrow your topic:
- Is there a specific person or group I want to focus on? (Adam Smith, Thomas Robert Malthus, John Maynard Keynes, etc.)
- Is there a particular place/geographic region I want to focus on? (United States, Latin America, Europe, etc.)
- Is there a certain time period or era I would like to focus on? (pre-modern, early modern, modern, etc.)
- Is there a viewpoint I would like to focus on? (traditional economies, command economies, mixed economies, and market economies, etc.)
Want to learn more? View this video for an overview of focusing your topic: