Doing Research: Selecting a Topic (page 2)

One of the most important steps of a research assignment is selecting a topic. You want a topic that is of interest to you, matches the requirements of the assignment, and is relevant to your studies. You also want to be sure that you can find information on your topic of choice. The following article focuses on the first step of starting a research assignment: selecting a topic.

Understanding the Assignment

When you’re given a research assignment, the instructor usually provides an assignment sheet or other resource that details the requirements of the assignment. For example, she may have you complete a research assignment from your textbook, or he may create his own assignment sheet. The assignment sheet is important because it tells you what the instructor expects as well as other information about putting together the research project (such as formatting information like fonts, margins, and so on). When you know what’s expected of you, you are more likely to match those requirements and expectations when doing the assignment. This effort translates to a better grade.

Instead of skimming over the assignment sheet and not paying too much attention to it until after the research assignment is complete and you’re just double-checking that you got it right, spend time early reading and thinking about the goals and parts of the assignment. For major research projects, be sure you know the following before you begin:

• Type of assignment: Instructors often assign research papers as the type of research assignment, but you may also be challenged to create other types of research projects, including presentations, oral reports, posters, videos, group games, and more. A lot of times, instructors require a written component (such as a paper) and an oral component (such as a brief oral report to your class). Know exactly what you need to create to meet the requirements of the assignment.
• Subject of assignment: Usually, an assignment is based on something you’re studying in class. You may take, for example, a more detailed look at a historical event. Or you may focus on a particular country or a time period in history. While the subject isn’t the same as your topic, the subject does provide the basic arena for the assignment and is a starting point for coming up with a topic for the assignment.
• Length of assignment: Your instructor should give you some idea of the expected length of the assignment. For reports, this may be a certain number of pages or words. For oral presentations, this may be a certain number of minutes to make the presentation. The length is important because it’s a criterion you use to select the topic. For example, if the goal is to write a 4- to 6-page paper, the topic of World War II is too big. Women’s role in that war, though, is a more focused the topic for a paper of that length.
• Expected resources: Your instructor will probably provide some ideas about where you can find information to complete the assignment. She may even require you to use a particular source, such as a recent news article or an Internet site. The expected resources can tell you the type of information your instructor expects to see in the research assignment.
• Elements: Your instructor should also specify any special elements the report should include. For example, your instructor may ask that you include an outline of your paper. Or you may need to show graphs or charts of your experiments for a science report. As another example, your instructor may want you to include illustrations or relevant photographs to enhance your report. In addition to the body of the research assignment, know what other items the instructor expects in your final report. You can then look for these elements when you’re doing your research.
• Format: The instructor should also provide you with detailed instructions on how the research assignment should look. For papers, this may include the typeface, font size, margins, title page, and other formatting elements such as headers and footers. For presentations, you may need to create a slide presentation (using programs such as PowerPoint), create a movie using a video camera, provide note cards for your oral report, and so on. The format should tell you exactly what your research assignment should look like when you turn it in or present it.
• Citations: When you include someone else’s words or ideas, always cite the source. You can use different methods for citations. You may include footnotes, endnotes (which are like footnotes but they appear at the end of the document on a separate page), or in-text citations (which appear in parenthesis, following the cited material). You need to not only know how to cite the information but also understand in what format you should list the works you cited (called a Works Cited page or Bibliography). The “Citing Sources” section later in this chapter covers the topic of citations in more detail.

 When you know the expectations of the assignment, you’re ready to select your topic.

Assigned Topics

If you’re really unhappy with an assigned topic, ask for something different. Have some valid reasons why the current topic doesn’t interest you (instead of saying, “I just don’t like it”). Also, present the instructor with some possible topics that are of interest to you and that meet the requirements of the assignment. He or she may let you change.

Brainstorm in Groups

If you’re stuck, ask someone else to help you brainstorm ideas. You may ask your classmates, friends, siblings, or parents to help you come up with ideas.

Evaluating Your Topic

After you generate a list of potential topics, you can evaluate each one, selecting the one that’s the best match for your interests and the particulars of the assignment. Ask yourself the following questions about the possible topic(s):

• Is the topic interesting? If the topic isn’t interesting to you, it’s not likely to be of interest to your audience (even if your “audience” is just your instructor). Also, you won’t be as enthused as you research and complete the assignment if you aren’t interested. To make your research assignment more enjoyable (and the outcome better), choose a topic that you find intriguing.
• Is the topic relevant to what you’re studying? For example, if you’re studying rain forests, your instructor isn’t likely to allow you to do your research assignment on the Great Wall of China. Make sure the topic relates to the goal and subject of the assignment.
• Is the scope manageable? If you choose an assignment that’s difficult to research, you may have trouble coming up with enough content. On the other hand, if you choose a topic that’s too broad, you may have too much material. You want just the right scope. You also want to be sure that the information you need is available (from your school library, local library, the Internet, or other resources).
• Will you be able to meet the goals of the assignment with this topic? If the goal is to research a topic and conduct a scientific experiment, a topic such as Devil’s Triangle (an area in the Atlantic Ocean where planes have been thought to disappear; also called the Bermuda Triangle), while interesting, won’t work because you don’t have an experiment that can feasibly prove or disprove your theories.