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Finding a topic is perhaps the difficult part of the research puzzle. The right topic can
inspire you, inform you and entertain you. It may lead you to new places in your personal,
professional and educational life. The wrong topic will bore you stiff. You won’t
learn anything because you’ll be so busy lamenting the fact that you hate the topic
that you won't give yourself the chance to enjoy the research.
Many teachers pick a topic for you. At that point you may be stuck with what you get and
you just have to trudge on. Most students don’t realize what a blessing
it is to be able to choose a topic and many take it for granted choosing something that
is “easy” rather than interesting. You don’t realize that picking a topic that
is interesting to you makes research easy because you long to find out more about it.
When choosing a topic look for the following.
An interesting research topic may come from anywhere. A hobby or activity you enjoy may
lead you to interesting related research.
A story on the news the news may spark an interest in a topic you may not have thought
of before.
A favorite celebrity or person, like a teacher or a doctor you admire, may
lead you to find out more information about a particular career or to find biographical
information about a celebrity.
Maybe there's an important issue that is currently impacting your life, like an illness or your
present job situation. Researching these topics may prove useful for your personal as well
as school life.
A topic you feel passionate about is always good to write about because you will usually
stay motivated to find out more.
Anything that is important to you has the potential to transform into a topic that is
research paper worthy. A few years ago a student in one of my ENC 1101 orientations decided
to be funny. When I asked him what his hobby was, he said, “Drinking beer.” He didn’t
think that was a good research topic until I showed him the possibilities.
A hobby like drinking beer can turn into a very interesting research topic.
First you have the multitude of possibilities about beer itself, such as american Breweries
vs. Foreign breweries, home brewing, the differences between beer and wine, or the difference between
micro and macro breweries. You also have other topics related to drinking
or alcohol like the dangers of drinking and driving, or underage drinking, or drinking’s
effects on behavior.
Any of these topics can be turned into a good research paper. The student I mentioned chose
to do his paper on microbreweries and got an A.
Once you have a general subject this will naturally lead you to the rest of your research.
Remember you need to have a subject in order to begin.