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Narrowing the Focus
Once you have chosen a topic area to research, it is often necessary to narrow the focus to make both the research and writing processes more manageable. Your research will be more efficient if you have a limited focus that allows you to concentrate on a few relevant articles or books as opposed to fifty sources about a broader topic. If the topic you have tentatively chosen is quite broad—abortion, gun control, animal rights— consider following the five-step process below for narrowing your research focus.
Take a large piece of paper and write the title of your tentative topic at the top.
Step 2: What do you know?
Spend about five minute writing down everything you know about the topic at the current time. (i.e. recent media coverage, authors who have previously written on the subject, important trends, a notable statistic about the issue that draws attention).
Step 3: Brainstorm Questions
Spend 20 minutes brainstorming any questions about your tentative topic that come to mind. Try to create a list of questions you would like to answer through your research.
Step 4: Focusing Question
From this list of questions select the one that has potential and interests you the most. This could well be your focusing question.
Step 5: Research Objectives
Take this focusing question and consider all of the smaller questions you must answer to address the broader focusing question.
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Research Guidebook |