How to choose a topic for a research paper

The topic:
 Choose a topic in which he is interested – at least one which seems to hold the
promise of being beneficial to him.
 There must be some purpose and use for the research.
 Don’t try to fill up pages on a subject with which you are totally bored.
 Don’t assume that the paper is being done for the sole benefit of the instructor
and simply to “pass” the course.
 The chosen topic must be limited so that it can be treated thoroughly and in depth.
 Before limiting the topic, you have to pay attention to these factors:
+ The audience:
- How knowledgeable are they in this field?
- What is their age level? Their educational level?
+ Word limitation: 3,000 words
+ Library facilities
+ Preparation time

How to evaluate sources:

 The investigation of a topic begins with trying to get an overview of the broad
topic.
 Make a quick inspection of the book before reading its content: preface,
introduction , index, footnotes, bibliography, appendixes

Review: Choosing a Topic

1. Brainstorm possible topic ideas
 Consider your personal interests
 Engage in conversations in class or with classmates
2. Review assignment requirements
 How much information do you need?
 Does it need to be recent information?
 What types of publications do you want to read - newspaper articles, books,
journal articles, diaries, trade publications?
 What formats do you need - visual, audio, printed, electronic?
 Is point of view an issue? Do you need opinions?
 How much time do you have?
3. List keyword to define your topic
 State your research topic as a question.
 Think about the significant terms, concepts, and keywords that describe your
topic. These terms will become the key for searching for information about your
subject in library catalogs, online databases, and other resources.
4. Gather background information on your topic
 It's hard to get started if you don't know much about your topic. Do some general
reading to get an overview of the topic. This is also a great first step towards
refining your topic.

Refining a Topic
  Narrowing a Topic: Too Much Information!
 If your topic seems too broad, consider questions like:
 What do you already know about the subject?
 Is there a specific time period you want to cover?
 Is there a particular aspect of this topic that interests you?
 Broadening a Topic: Not Enough Information!
 If your topic is so specific that you can't find sources that specifically address it,
consider questions like:
 Could you add elements to your topic for examination?
 Could you think more broadly about this topic? Give thought to the wider
implications of your research.
 Who are the key players in this topic?
 What other issues are involved in this topic?

The bibliography:
 Keep an orderly record of the sources needed to write the research paper.
 There are two kinds of bibliography (index cards):
 Preliminary bibliography
 Working bibliography:
+ The bibliography that the researcher will be working with until his final draft has been
submitted and accepted.
+ A working bibliography:
- during the general preparation
- during the note - taking

Procedure of making the bibliography:

 The entries must be done in ink.
 Each entry should include:
- The author’s name (inverted and separated by a comma)
- The title of the work (underlined)
- The place of publication
- Publisher
- Date of publication
 Essays and articles could be filed in one group.
 On-line sources should also filed in one group.

Review: Quality and Reliability when choosing your resources

 When choosing your resources, the most difficult task is determining their quality
and reliability. Factors to think about:
- What is the tone?
- Who is the intended audience?
- What is the purpose of the publication?
- What assumptions does the author make?
- What are the bases of the author's conclusions?
- Does the author agree or disagree with other authors of the subject?
- Does the content agree with what you know or have learned about the issue?
 To help determine this, it might also help to look over the source's documentation
and read some reviews of the source.

Evaluating Web Pages

 Before using information found on a web page for your research project, consider
the following criteria to evaluate its credibility.
- Authority
- Purpose/Intended Audience
- Currency
- Objectivity
- Support

Criteria & Questions to Consider when Evaluating Web Pages

 Who wrote the page?

 What are the author's credentials?
 Can you verify the author's credentials?
 Could the credentials be made up?
 Did the author include contact information?
 Whose web site is this?
 What organization is sponsoring the web page?

Tips & Ideas when Evaluating Web Pages

 Look for the author's name near the top or the bottom of the page. If you can't find
a name, look for a copyright credit (©) or link to an organization.
 Look for biographical information or the author's affiliations (university
department, organization, corporate title, etc.).
 Anyone who has visited a chat room knows that people don't always identify
themselves accurately.
 Look for an email link, address, or phone number for the author. A responsible
author should give you the means to contact him/her.

Purpose/IntendedAudience:
Criteria & Questions to Consider

 What is the purpose of the page?

 Why did the author create it?
 Who is the target audience?
 The purpose of the page could be advertising, advocacy, news, entertainment,
opinion, fandom, scholarship, satire, etc.
 Some pages have more than one purpose. For example,
http://www.dowjones.com/ provides free business information but also
encourages you to subscribe to the Wall Street Journal or other Dow Jones
products.
  To identify target audience:
- Look at reading level of the page: is it easy to read or challenging? Does it
assume previous knowledge of the subject?
- Consider the design of the web page: are there banner ads and animated
GIFs, or does the page present a lot of text with little decoration?
- Possible audiences include: academic researchers, kids, buyer's of
competitor's products, participants in a support group, political extremists, and
more.

Currency
 Is there a date at the top or bottom of the page?
 Is the information up-to-date?
 To verify a site's organizational sponsorship:
 Look at the domain (.com, .edu, .org, etc.).
 Look for an "about this site" link.
 Be careful of a web page that has a tilde (~) in the URL, as this usually
identifies a personal directory on a web site.

Note: A recent date doesn't necessarily mean the information is current. The content
might be years out of date even if the date given is recent. (The last update of the page
might have been from someone changing an email address or fixing a typo).
 To determine if information is up-to-date, compare the information on the web
page to information available through other sources. Broken links are one
measure of an out-of-date page.
 In general, information in science, technology, and business fields ages quickly.
Information in the humanities and social sciences age less quickly. In some cases,
old information can be perfectly valid.

Objectivity:
Criteria & Questions to Consider
 Is the author being objective or biased?
- Biased information is not necessarily "bad", but you must take the bias into account
when interpreting or using the information given.
Look at the facts the author provides, and the facts the author doesn't provide.
- Are the facts accurately and completely cited?
- Is the author fair, balanced, and moderate in his/her views, or is the author overly
emotional or extreme?

Support:
Criteria & Questions to Consider
- Does the author support the information he/she uses?
- Is the support respectable?

 Look for links or citations to sources. Some academic web pages include
bibliographies.
- Does the page cite well-known sources or authorities?
- Does the page cite a variety of sources? Do other pages on the same topic cite some of
the same sources?
 The web page in question should have a mix of internal links (links to web pages
on the same site or by the same author) and external links (links to other sources
or experts).
 If a web page makes it hard for you to check the support, be suspicious.