Library: Introduction to Doing Research: Choosing a Topic

Choosing a topic

Choose a topic that you are interested in! The research process is more relevant if you care about your topic.
Narrow your topic to something manageable. If your topic is too broad, you will find too much information.
Review the guidelines on topic selection outlined in your assignment. Ask your Instructor for suggestions.
Talk about research ideas with a friend. They may be able to help focus your topic by discussing issues that didn't occur to you at first.
Do a few searches using the Articles tab on the library home page https://library.webster.edu/. This can help you explore your topic and see if articles have been written on your topic.
To further explore choosing a topic, see this video that the Library has created:

Where do I Start?: Selecting a Topic and Beginning Your Research (Recorded 2018. 17 minutes)
You have a research assignment; now what do you do? We will guide you through selecting a topic, writing a thesis statement and research questions, selecting keywords and databases for preliminary research. Click here to watch specific parts of this video.

This Brainstorm and Explore a Topic tutorial will help you work through the process of selecting a research topic.

Start with a Topic (Part 3): Select a topic that is of interest to you and researchable
Focus (Part 6): Focus your topic so that it is manageable and fits your assignment.
Research Questions (Part 7): Turn your topic into a research question.

from Clark College's IRIS: Information & Research Instruction Suite