Step by step guide on selecting your research topic

If you are a Masters, M.Phil. or a Ph.D. student then you must be well aware of the importance of research for your degree. Even for a bachelor’s student, research is a must in the form of a Final Year Project. So research is one of the most vital aspects of education and learning and at some stage in your academic career, you have to conduct research.

Why is it important to choose the right topic for research?

Selecting a research topic is the basis of research. If you are unable to select an appropriate topic you might end up ruining your research. All your dedicated time and efforts may go in vain. Lots of students just take up any topic and start working on it, just to get their topic rejected towards the end of the research.

If you are planning to conduct research anytime soon then you may follow the following steps for choosing a research topic to form the right base for your research.

1. Brainstorm your mind

The first and foremost thing you need to do is to have a brainstorming session. Trigger your mind for different ideas. Take a look at what is going on in the news and ask yourself if there is anything that is asking for your attention? You should read a few recently published articles and newspapers. You might find a topic there which could be best suited to your research problem.

In the meantime, don’t forget one thing and that is your interest. You just simply can’t compromise on your interest. Lots of people make the horrible mistake of asking other people that which topic they should choose. Nobody other than you knows your interests better than you. So it makes no sense to throw the ball in someone else’s coat. Make it certain that you are thinking about topics that will fascinate you don’t feel lost and bored while working on them.

2. Literature review

It’s a term that almost every student is familiar with. A literature review is nothing but the background study of a topic. Considering the fact that we are living in the 21st century and researches have been going on and on for hundreds of years now. More and more knowledge has been consistently added to almost all areas of life. So here is a question that you might ask yourself that what is the purpose of doing research? Or why does anybody conducts research? Research is either conducted either to add some new facts to the knowledge body or to review the pre-existing facts and check their validity. In both cases, the literature review is a must as it helps you to identify the problem you can take on for your research.

So, you must have shortlisted a few topics after the brainstorming and now you need to know that what the literature says about those topics. This helps you to discover new facts about those topics which were previously unknown to you. While doing the literature review you need to find out the answers to the following questions:

• What are the pre-existing facts regarding this topic?
• Which are the proposed theories regarding the topic?
• Was there any criticism or critical analysis on these theories?

3. Pick a topic

Now after doing the literature review you should be able to pick up the best possible topic for your research. Once again you need to make sure that the topic is of your interest. Just think of a Computer Sciences student whose prime interest is Machine learning he/she is asked to carry out research in web development. It will never produce the desired results from the research.

Moreover, you need to have a decent amount of knowledge about the topic. It helps you to proceed very smoothly towards the different stages of your research. Take an example of a mathematics student who is deeply interested in number theory but knows nothing about it. It’s not going to be feasible for such a student to carry good research on this topic.

4. Narrow down your topic

After choosing a topic you have to adjust its scope. In other words, you can say that you need to narrow down or limit the scope of your study so that it remains manageable. It makes your topic way more specific and precise. Suppose you want to study the effects of deforestation. It’s not feasible to study this topic in general so you need to narrow down this topic.  For doing this you need to add contexts to your topic. Three types of contexts you can add to your topic are:

• Geographical context. You can narrow it down by studying the effects of deforestation on Pakistan which makes it very much manageable.
• Historical context. Effects of deforestation in the 21st century.
• Biological context. Effects of deforestation on wild animals

5. Research your topic more

Once you have arrived at the stage where you have finally picked a topic as your research problem, then you need to explore the topic a little more. It will allow you to improve your understanding of the topic. As a result of this process you can:

• Make the necessary modifications to the topic.
• Be more certain about your selection of the topic.
• Add more contexts to your topic (if needed).

6. Convert your topic into a research question

Now, this is the last step you need to follow to complete the selection of your research topic. All you need to do is to convert the topic into a well-focused research question. Take the example of deforestation again. Suppose that you have finalized your topic as ‘’Effects of deforestation on wild animals’’. A good research question for this topic can be ‘’How has deforestation impacted the wildlife?’’ How do you know that you have formulated a good research question? A good research question must be:

• Focused
• Unique
• Researchable
• Relevant to the topic.
• Feasible for the given time span
• Neither too narrow nor too broad

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