best sad poetry: How to Select a Research Topic

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

HOW TO SELECT A RESEARCH TOPIC

By Adnan Hussain

} WHAT IS RESEARCH TOPIC

· A concept, subject or issue that can be studied or investigated through research

· It may be unanswered or unsolved questions, a query or statement of inquiry

· A successful Research Project starts with a good topic but how can one decide what to pick?

WHAT CONSTITUTES A RESEARCH TOPIC

It may sound strange, but the first step when doing research isn’t choosing a direct topic. You aren’t going to say, “Okay, my topic is … Birds….. Or Human Language…. Let’s start searching”
Rather, from an initial, and perhaps very general, research topic area, you’re going to formulate a research question, or set of questions, that you can then investigate further.
You have to see what information is available to you, and then start honing in on a manageable topic from there.
Thus, the first step is not to choose a direct topic, and then do research. The first step is to research, more specifically, what your topic even is.

IMPORTANT STEPS

· Pick a (manageable) idea/topic of interest

· Try to pick a broad idea / topic that you find interesting. This will ensure the research process as engaging and fun as possible.

Be flexible
Understand that choosing a research topic is a cyclical process. No topic should be set in tone. Be prepared to change/reshape your topic as you search for information, read about your topic, and learn more

} SEARCH FOR INFORMATION ON TOPIC

After searching information from resources, such as scholarly articles and books, in the library catalogue and relevant databases. If one find a lot of work already done. Then Topic should be narrowed down.

Example

If you find too much information, your topic might be too broad. To make your topic more specific and narrow, try to zero in on a single aspect of your topic.
Narrow your topic and search again

Example

If you cannot find enough information resources, your topic might be too specific. To broaden your topic, consider removing some of your criteria from your research topic.

Example

Instead of investigating the use of “Instagram by university students at funerals”, you might broaden your topic to the “Use of Instagram at funerals”
Narrow it down to an effective research topic once you have learn a little more
There are many things that can help you to select a topic such as newspapers, magzine, Library database, conversation with friend or discussion with your supervisor/instructor.

FIVE W…

After reviewing and choosing a broad topic, we have to analyze it under five “W’s” questions
Who: which group have interest in the topic.
What: What are the most important issues at stake? What are the different factors involved?
Where is the topic relevant?
When did the situation, event or problem started?
Why: Why it happened. Why it is significant?
Once you answer the who, what, where, when and why, now you have a good idea of an effective, narrowed version of your topic.

ATTRIBUTES OF A GOOD RESEARCH TOPIC

ATTRIBUTES OF A GOOD RESEARCH TOPIC

Availability of necessary tools and equipment
Do you have sufficient financial and other resources ?
Will you be able to get access to relevant data?
Ensure that you have access to the information needed to answer the question or test the hypothesis.
Determine the availability of and access to literature and information, needed to complete research, technical and computing skills, etc. required
Ensure that you can make a good thesis/dissertation statement/question/a research hypothesis about the problem as you need to be able to convince others of the novelty of the topic.

LIMITS

The title should not be too long (normally not more than 10 words) but should provide as much information about the study as possible.
The title should preferably not be in a question form; it must define the research clearly, and must be clear and precise.
The title should not contain technical terms, or jargon. The use of acronyms should be limited.