Have you ever sat around staring at your computer, praying that divine intervention will send you a research topic? That the topic will be so expertly chosen that it needs no tweaking? That the project would throw itself into your lap? Well, I can’t say that I can give you the secrets to unlocking that magic within the universe, but I can give you some helpful tips to get you to that comfortable place of knowing what you want to write about and a few useful methods that can lead to a truly expertly drafted paper.
According to Envision, the first step to choosing a constructive topic is simply by being curious, asking questions that lead to deeper research. In my opinion, this was something instilled in me by one of more influential teachers; you shouldn’t ever choose a topic you yourself aren’t interested in. We do need to be aware of our audience and readers, but not at the expense of our writing. Whether given a specific topic, an umbrella topic, or given no topic at all, you have to remember that it is important and possible to make the topic you choose all your own. Setting yourself, whether it be in business or in a class, apart from the rest can only help you on your way to success. Question things you hear in your everyday life that you feel passionately about and delve into them. Question the analogies and comparisons people make, those of different generations, even those with only a few years age gap reference different things.
After you have found something, broad or not, that interests you, begin to keep a log of your research and information gathered. Its not so important what format the log is kept in so much that the information is able to be gathered in one place and is kept. As you get more comfortable with the topic, continue asking questions until you find one that you are truly interested and invested in. Take the topic one step further and brainstorm with in that topic. This brainstorming may bring up facts you already know or questions you’d like to have answered. As the brainstorm becomes more spread out it becomes easier to pick a subsection of the topic to focus in on.
Once a topic has been clearly chosen, you can move onto the next step: planning through writing. One way of doing this, generally my most often used weapon in my arsenal of writing methods, is freewriting about the topic at hand. When accomplishing a freewrite it is advised that you divide it into three paragraphs, the first should introduce your topic and develop a thesis. The second should discuss the sources that you plan to use when developing your research paper. Finally, the third should identify problems that may arise as a result of writing your paper. Another way of planning a paper through writing is to draft a research hypothesis. This is similar to a freewrite, in that you aren’t actually researching yet. Instead, you are constructing a claim that you will try to prove. The key here though, is to remain objective, remembering that it is okay to revise and edit your hypothesis if the research proves the first to be false. The third way of planning your research, which is typically a more formal use of writing, is to create a research proposal. Research proposals are generally used when trying to acquire funds for a project or merely permission to delve deeper into the topic. When creating a proposal, there is information that is generally included. This information includes: your background with the topic-that is, what you already know, how you plan to research, what types of sources you plan to use, the overall hope in accomplishing this research and if appropriate a timeline so that work can be completed efficiently.
Now that I have laid out the most effective ways to approach a research project hopefully you will no longer have to Google or post Facebook statuses asking for help for topics that you aren’t concerned with.
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