Choosing a Research Topic

Most academic writers, early in their careers, attempt to tackle research topics too broad in scope for a 1000- to 2000-word paper. Narrowness and specificity is the key to wrangle in a topic and break the subject down into digestible, writable bits. But how does one accomplish narrowing a topic down if they are unfamiliar with current trends of their major, nor know where to find information on their subject? Here are a few helpful hints to getting you on the way to writing a narrowly focused, well-researched paper.

1. Go to the Source: Since you are new to your college major's field, choose a professor or advisor within your major you are comfortable with and have a working relationship with. If you haven't worked with a professor in your major yet, no need to worry-talk to other students in your major and ask them which professors are the most helpful and approachable. Next, you want to either e-mail or call for an appointment. Professors are extremely busy with their current students and their own work. Also, the professionalism you exhibit by making an appointment goes a long way in illustrating to the professor you are capable of working as a colleague and you value their time. When you finally do meet for your appointment, go in prepared. It is smart to have three or four workable topics all ready in mind. Discuss the topics with the professor and ask them if the topics are too vague or broad. They are experts in the field and will be able to help you narrow down the noise and get into the meat of something you are interested in. I even suggest asking the professor what they are currently studying. Professors are all too happy to share their work with you, and if you prove to be a reliable researcher and student, who knows, maybe you'll get on that professor's radar as a potential research assistant-talking about bulking up that grad school application. A few days after the appointment, drop off a short handwritten thank you to their department office. Good etiquette lets people know you care and brightens everyones day.

2. Start Digging: Most universities have librarians paid to help you research. Okay, they aren't paid specifically for you, but they are there to help. At my institution, Texas Tech University, our library has personal librarians who are expert researchers in your field. These librarians can help you navigate the best journals, periodicals, and websites which contain scholarly articles pertaining to your field. Most libraries-and I recommend this for college undergraduates and first-year graduates-have orientation seminars to help get you around the stacks and the ever-growing digital information on the library's website. These orientation seminars often provide tricks and shortcuts to help you dig deeper into research databases. The drawback? These seminars are usually on your time, so you're going to have to juggle that social and class schedule a bit to coordinate. Also, to help the librarian, let them know the professor's name you are working with. A librarian is a professor's best friend, and more than likely, they have a working relationship.

3. Gather Information: Once the librarian turns you loose, get twice the amount of articles and information the paper-assigning professor asks for: this will come in handy later and does not narrow your information down for you. Only about sixty-percent of the articles you dig up will focus specifically on what you are researching. You want to spend as little wasted time in the stacks as possible-the rest of your time should be reading the articles to determine if you can work with the given topic. Print the articles or save them to an annotatable .pdf file to take notes as you read through them the first time. This will help in latter steps of your research. If an article does not seem to fit into your chosen topic, put it aside. Don't trash it. As you read more and focus your later argument, something in that article may help. This is only preliminary research and you are still determining whether this topic is a good fit for you or not.

Once you get through these three steps, you should determine rather your topic is narrow enough and is engaging enough to keep your interest. If the topic is not engaging, your research will suffer and your writing will reflect your boredom. We'll cover the next steps of a successful research paper later, but the two most important skills to work on and perfect are writing an annotated bibliography of the works you've read and an inclusive literature review-both will make the job of writing your paper easier than you'd expect and make the job more enjoyable.