Answered By: Allison Ball
Last Updated: Oct 04, 2021 Views: 63704
Once you have chosen a research topic, you will need to narrow it down into a research statement or question. The sooner you do this in your research process, the more time you'll save because you can conduct more focused searches.
Here are some common ways you can narrow down a research topic:
By demographic characteristics
Narrow it down by age group, occupation, ethnic group, gender, etc.
e.g. challenges faced by international college graduates entering the workforce
By relevant issues
Try to identify key issues related to your topic, especially ones that you have an opinion on. You can turn your opinion into your thesis statement or research question.
e.g. challenges faced by college graduates who are unable to find meaningful or relevant work
By location
Focus on a specific country, province, city, or type of environment (rural vs. urban).
e.g. challenges faced by college graduates entering the workforce in rural Ontario
By timeframe
Decide whether you want to study recent events or a historical time period. This will also help you decide how current the information you use must be.
e.g. challenges faced by college graduates entering the workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic
By causes
You can take the perspective of looking for causes of an issue you are researching.
e.g. Why do employers hire fewer college graduates?
When developing a research question, think about: Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How. The more of these you incorporate the more specific your research question will be.
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Keep it manageable and be flexible. If you start doing more research and not finding enough sources that support your thesis, you may need to adjust your topic.
A topic will be very difficult to research if it is too broad or narrow. One way to narrow a broad topic such as "the environment" is to limit your topic. Some common ways to limit a topic are:
- by geographic area
Example: What environmental issues are most important in the Southwestern United States?
- by culture
- by time frame:
Example: What are the most prominent environmental issues of the last 10 years?
- by discipline
Example: How does environmental awareness effect business practices today?
- by population group
Example: What are the effects of air pollution on senior citizens?
Remember that a topic may be too difficult to research if it is too:
- locally confined - Topics this specific may only be covered in local newspapers and not in scholarly articles.
Example: What sources of pollution affect the Genesee County water supply?
- recent - If a topic is quite recent, books or journal articles may not be available, but newspaper or magazine articles may. Also, websites related to the topic may or may not be available.
- broadly interdisciplinary - You could be overwhelmed with superficial information.
Example: How can the environment contribute to the culture, politics and society of the Western United States?
- popular - You will only find very popular articles about some topics such as sports figures and high-profile celebrities and musicians.
Putting your topic in the form of a question will help you focus on what type of information you want to collect.
If you have any difficulties or questions with focusing your topic, discuss the topic with your instructor, or with a librarian.
1. Pick a Subject
- Make sure you understand what you are being asked to do. If you have any questions, ask your professor to clarify.
- Choose a subject that you are interested in. The more you like your subject, the easier it will be to research.
- Do some research to start narrowing down your topic:
- Do some background reading to understand more about the topic. You can use Wikipedia but do not use it as a source in your final paper, as it is editable by the public.
- Try a test search of the library’s resources to see what kind of results you get. If the topic is too general, you may need to narrow it down; if it is too specific, you may need to expand your search.
Example: Picking a Subject
My assignment:
Write a research report on a topic of your choice
My subject ideas:
- I am interested in environmental issues.
- I have read about global warming, but what are the causes?
- I wonder, what are some possible solutions?
- Why is it such a complicated problem and what are some of the issues that are debated by scientists?
- Is technology the solution to global warming? Or are changes in our behaviour the solution?
My broad topic for the assignment is ‘Global Warming’.
My research to narrow my topic:
- Research in Wikipedia:
- I got a good overview of the topic.
- I discovered areas of the topic that interest me and that I might want to focus on, such as the causes of global warming and the possible responses to it.
- Searching Library resources:
- I searched for for ‘Global warming’ in the Library’s OneSearch page.
- I got too many results, because my topic is too general.
- I can find suggestions of subjects on the left side of the page, which I can use to make my subject more specific.
- In the next step, I will use what I have learned to refine my topic.
2. Refine Your Topic
Narrowing your subject to a more specific topic takes a bit of research and thought.
Here are some ideas to help you narrow your topic:
- Talk to a friend to get ideas. They may give you ideas that didn't occur to you.
Use these questions:
- WHY did you choose the topic? What interests you about it? Do you have an opinion about the issues involved?
- WHO are the information providers on this topic? Who might publish information about it? Who is affected by the topic? Do you know of organizations or institutions affiliated with the topic?
- WHAT are the major questions for this topic? Is there a debate about the topic? Are there a range of issues and viewpoints to consider?
- WHERE is your topic important: at the local, national or international level? Are there specific places affected by the topic?
- WHEN is/was your topic important? Is it a current event or an historical issue? Do you want to compare your topic by time periods?
(Content reproduced from MIT.eduunder a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License)
- Turn your topic into a question. You will be trying to answer this question with your research. Think about something you would like to try to prove or argue.
- Make sure to pick a topic that will have enough information available. Do a preliminary search to see if there is enough information about your topic.
Example: Refining Your Topic
The subject we chose in the earlier step is ‘global warming.’ This subject is a very broad topic with many different aspects you could research. We will use the techniques above to narrow our subject to a research topic.
- First, I answered the questions:
- Why: I am interested in environmental issues, and I am interested in how technology can be used to improve things in the future.
- Who: Many environmental journals have published research on this topic. Also, organizations such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the United Nations Environment Programme publish reports on the topic.
- What: The main questions in this topic are as follows:
- Which types of energy sources are best for the environment?
- Are they feasible?
- How much will they cost?
- What are the potential positive or negative effects?
- Where: This issue is important for everyone, both on local levels and on a global level.
- When: This is a current issue; it is very important today and for the future. I would like for this paper to be more future-focused.
- From these answers, I came up with possible topics, such as ‘the causes of global warming’ ‘technological solutions to global warming’, or ‘what effect does global warming have on business?’ or ‘scientific debate about global warming’
- I turned my topic into a question: ‘Can alternative energy sources help stop global warming?’
- I made sure my topic has enough information available. A quick search of library resources shows over 7,000 results related to my question.
Sample research question: Can alternative energy sources help stop global warming?