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Choosing a Research Topic

Choosing a Research Topic

Choosing a research topic can be one ofthe most difficult parts of the research process. Always remember, your researchmatters. There is an audience out there for every topic, so don't be afraid toexplore a seemingly uncommon subject.

This video will help you choose a topicrelevant and interesting to you. When choosing a research topic the best firststep is to understand your assignments requirements. Are there things you can orcannot research? How long is the paper?Are you required to find scholarlysources? This will help you choose an appropriate topic. Next you want to askyourself: What are you interested in? What issues personally affect you? What arecurrent issues in your field of study?

Writing about a topic that you careabout will result in a better paper andmake the process more enjoyable for you.Christian has to write a persuasive research paper. Christian recently gotback from a trip to Africa and is interested in incorporating hisexperience into his research paper.Christian does a search on Africa in anarticle database. His initial search returns over three hundred thousandresults. This helps Christian realize that his topic is too broad, so he needsto figure out a way to narrow this topicdown into something more researchable.

Some questions Christian can ask himselfto narrow down his topic are: Who? Is  there a specific population, group, ororganization to focus on? What? What are the main issues affecting individuals inAfrica? Where? Can you focus on a specific region or country? Why? What is the causeof the issue? What's the context behind the issue? How? How do the issues impactindividuals, the environment, or the government? Using results from hisdatabase search and his personal experiences, Christian determines that hewants to focus on the lack of clean water in sub-saharan Africa and itsimpact on the individuals in these countries. It's okay if you don't haveprior knowledge of your topic like Christian,you can use your initial research to learn more about your topic and theangle you want to pursue. As you continue the research process, it is inevitablethat your topic will change or evolve. 

Sources of article:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjuvdglDyoY