narrowing a research topic example

Research Tips and Tricks

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Topic Narrowing

Ways to narrow your topic, be careful, tools to help, youtube videos about narrowing a topic.

Breaking Topic Into Keywords
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Talk to your professor

A common challenge when beginning to write a research paper is determining how to narrow down your topic.

Even if your professor gives you a topic to study, it will seldom be specific enough that you will not have to narrow it down, at least to some degree.

A topic is too broad to be manageable when you find that you have too many different, conflicting or only remotely related ideas.

Although you will want to start the writing process by considering a variety of different approaches to studying the research problem, you will need to narrow the focus of your investigation at some point early in the writing process - this way you don't attempt to do too much in one paper.

Here are some strategies to help narrow your topic :

Aspect -- choose one lens through which to view the research problem, or look at just one facet of it.

e.g., rather than studying the role of food in South Asian religious rituals, explore the role of food in Hindu ceremonies or the role of one particular type of food among several religions.

Components -- determine if your initial variable or unit of analysis can be broken into smaller parts, which can then be analyzed more precisely.

e.g., a study of tobacco use among adolescents can focus on just chewing tobacco rather than all forms of usage or, rather than adolescents in general, focus on female adolescents in a specific age range who choose to use tobacco.

Methodology -- how you gather information can reduce the domain of interpretive analysis needed to address the research problem.

e.g., a single case study can be designed to generate data that does not require as extensive an explanation as using multiple cases.

Place -- generally, the smaller the geographic unit of analysis, the more narrow the focus.

e.g., rather than study trade relations in North America, study trade relations between Mexico and the United States.

Relationship -- ask yourself how do two or more different perspectives or variables relate to one another. Designing a study around the relationships between specific variables can help constrict the scope of analysis.

e.g., cause/effect, compare/contrast, contemporary/historical, group/individual, male/female, opinion/reason, problem/solution.

Time -- the shorter the time period of the study, the more narrow the focus.

e.g., study of relations between Russia and the United States during the Vietnam War.

Type -- focus your topic in terms of a specific type or class of people, places, or phenomena.

e.g., a study of developing safer traffic patterns near schools can focus on SUVs, or just student drivers, or just the timing of traffic signals in the area.

Cause -- focus your topic to just one cause for your topic.

e.g., rather than writing about all the causes of WW1, just write about nationalism.

When narrowing your topic, make sure you don't narrow it too much. A topic is too narrow if you can state it in just a few words.

For example:

How many soldiers died during the first world war?
Who was the first President of the United States?
Why is ocean water salty?
Why are Pringles shaped the way they are?
Developing a Research Topic This exercise is designed to help you develop a thoughtful topic for your research assignment, including methods for narrowing your topic.
What Makes a Good Research Question?
Narrowing Your topic
Four Steps To Narrow Your Research Topic

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Importance of Narrowing the Research Topic

Whether you are assigned a general issue to investigate, must choose a problem to study from a list given to you by your professor, or you have to identify your own topic to investigate, it is important that the scope of the research problem is not too broad, otherwise, it will be difficult to adequately address the topic in the space and time allowed. You could experience a number of problems if your topic is too broad, including:

You find too many information sources and, as a consequence, it is difficult to decide what to include or exclude or what are the most relevant sources.
You find information that is too general and, as a consequence, it is difficult to develop a clear framework for examining the research problem.
A lack of sufficient parameters that clearly define the research problem makes it difficult to identify and apply the proper methods needed to analyze it.
You find information that covers a wide variety of concepts or ideas that can't be integrated into one paper and, as a consequence, you trail off into unnecessary tangents.

Lloyd-Walker, Beverly and Derek Walker. "Moving from Hunches to a Research Topic: Salient Literature and Research Methods." In Designs, Methods and Practices for Research of Project Management . Beverly Pasian, editor. ( Burlington, VT: Gower Publishing, 2015 ), pp. 119-129.

Strategies for Narrowing the Research Topic

A common challenge when beginning to write a research paper is determining how and in what ways to narrow down your topic . Even if your professor gives you a specific topic to study, it will almost never be so specific that you won’t have to narrow it down at least to some degree [besides, it is very boring to grade fifty papers that are all about the exact same thing!].

A topic is too broad to be manageable when a review of the literature reveals too many different, and oftentimes conflicting or only remotely related, ideas about how to investigate the research problem. Although you will want to start the writing process by considering a variety of different approaches to studying the research problem, you will need to narrow the focus of your investigation at some point early in the writing process. This way, you don't attempt to do too much in one paper.

Here are some strategies to help narrow the thematic focus of your paper :

Aspect -- choose one lens through which to view the research problem, or look at just one facet of it [e.g., rather than studying the role of food in South Asian religious rituals, study the role of food in Hindu marriage ceremonies, or, the role of one particular type of food among several religions].
Components -- determine if your initial variable or unit of analysis can be broken into smaller parts, which can then be analyzed more precisely [e.g., a study of tobacco use among adolescents can focus on just chewing tobacco rather than all forms of usage or, rather than adolescents in general, focus on female adolescents in a certain age range who choose to use tobacco].
Methodology -- the way in which you gather information can reduce the domain of interpretive analysis needed to address the research problem [e.g., a single case study can be designed to generate data that does not require as extensive an explanation as using multiple cases].
Place -- generally, the smaller the geographic unit of analysis, the more narrow the focus [e.g., rather than study trade relations issues in West Africa, study trade relations between Niger and Cameroon as a case study that helps to explain economic problems in the region].
Relationship -- ask yourself how do two or more different perspectives or variables relate to one another. Designing a study around the relationships between specific variables can help constrict the scope of analysis [e.g., cause/effect, compare/contrast, contemporary/historical, group/individual, child/adult, opinion/reason, problem/solution].
Time -- the shorter the time period of the study, the more narrow the focus [e.g., restricting the study of trade relations between Niger and Cameroon to only the period of 2010 - 2020].
Type -- focus your topic in terms of a specific type or class of people, places, or phenomena [e.g., a study of developing safer traffic patterns near schools can focus on SUVs, or just student drivers, or just the timing of traffic signals in the area].
Combination -- use two or more of the above strategies to focus your topic more narrowly.

NOTE : Apply one of the above strategies first in designing your study to determine if that gives you a manageable research problem to investigate. You will know if the problem is manageable by reviewing the literature on your more narrowed problem and assessing whether prior research is sufficient to move forward in your study [i.e., not too much, not too little]. Be careful, however, because combining multiple strategies risks creating the opposite problem--your problem becomes too narrowly defined and you can't locate enough research or data to support your study.

Booth, Wayne C. The Craft of Research . Fourth edition. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2016; Coming Up With Your Topic. Institute for Writing Rhetoric. Dartmouth College; Narrowing a Topic. Writing Center. University of Kansas; Narrowing Topics. Writing@CSU. Colorado State University; Strategies for Narrowing a Topic. University Libraries. Information Skills Modules. Virginia Tech University; The Process of Writing a Research Paper. Department of History. Trent University; Ways to Narrow Down a Topic. Contributing Authors. Utah State OpenCourseWare.

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A Research Guide
Research Paper Guide

How to Narrow Down a Research Topic?

Why narrowing the research topic
Step-by-step guide

Strategies for narrowing the research topic

Narrowing topic example, why narrowing the research topic boosts your study.

Enhances your comprehension of the selected topic, aligning you with the specialized vocabulary and concepts employed by scholars in the field.
Allows your investigation to be enriched with contextual insights.

Step-by-step guide for narrowing topic

Step 1: initial brainstorming and exploration., step 2: define the goals., step 3: narrowing focus., step 4: include a literature review., step 5: finalize a topic., methodology, relationship, combination.

Writing a Research Paper
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Research Question
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MLA Style Research Paper
Chicago Style Research Paper
APA Style Research Paper
Research Paper Structure
Research Paper Cover Page
Research Paper Abstract
Research Paper Introduction
Research Paper Body Paragraph
Research Paper Literature Review
Research Paper Background
Research Paper Methods Section
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1-Research Questions

2. Narrowing a Topic

For many students, having to start with a research question is the biggest difference between how they did research in high school and how they are required to carry out their college research projects. It’s a process of working from the outside in: you start with the world of all possible topics (or your assigned topic) and narrow down until you’ve focused your interest enough to be able to tell precisely what you want to find out, instead of only what you want to “write about.”

Process of Narrowing a Topic

A Venn diagram of concentric circles to show narrowing from all possible topics to a specific research question.

All Possible Topics -You’ll need to narrow your topic in order to do research effectively. Without specific areas of focus, it will be hard to even know where to begin.

Assigned Topics – When professors assign a topic you have to narrow, they have already started the narrowing process. Narrowing a topic means making some part of it more specific. Ideas about a narrower topic can come from anywhere. Often, a narrower topic boils down to deciding what’s interesting to you. One way to get ideas is to read background information from a source like Wikipedia.

Topic Narrowed by Initial Exploration – It’s wise to do some more reading about that narrower topic to a) learn more about it and b) learn specialized terms used by professionals and scholars who study it.

Topic Narrowed to Research Question(s) – A research question defines exactly what you are trying to find out. It will influence most of the steps you take to conduct the research.

ACTIVITY: Which Topic Is Narrower?

When we talk about narrowing a topic, we’re talking about making it more specific. You can make it more specific by singling out at least one part or aspect of the original to decrease the scope of the original. Now here’s some practice for you to test your understanding.

Why Narrow a Topic?

Once you have a need for research—say, an assignment—you may need to prowl around a bit online to explore the topic and figure out what you actually want to find out and write about.

For instance, maybe your assignment is to develop a poster about the season “spring” for an introductory horticulture course. The instructor expects you to narrow that topic to something you are interested in and that is related to your class.

A pie chart with one small section labeled as A narrower topic is a slice of the larger one.

One way to get ideas would be to read about spring in Wikipedia, looking for things that seem interesting and relevant to your class, and then letting one thing lead to another as you keep reading and thinking about likely possibilities that are more narrow than the enormous “spring” topic. (Be sure to pay attention to the references at the bottom of most Wikipedia pages and pursue any that look interesting. Your instructor is not likely to let you cite Wikipedia, but those references may be citable scholarly sources that you could eventually decide to use.)

Or, instead, if it is spring at the time you could start by just looking around, admire the blooming trees on campus, and decide you’d like your poster to be about bud development on your favorites, the crabapple trees.

What you’re actually doing to narrow your topic is making at least one aspect of your topic more specific. For instance, assume your topic is the maintenance of the 130 miles of sidewalks on OSU’s Columbus campus. If you made maintenance more specific, your narrower topic might be snow removal on Columbus OSU’s sidewalks. If instead, you made the 130 miles of sidewalks more specific, your narrower topic might be maintenance of the sidewalks on all sides of Mirror Lake.

Anna Narrows Her Topic and Works on a Research Question

The Situation: Anna, an undergraduate, has been assigned a research paper on Antarctica. Her professor expects students to (1) narrow the topic on something more specific about Antarctica because they won’t have time to cover that whole topic. Then they are to (2) come up with a research question that their paper will answer.

The professor explained that the research question should be something they are interested in answering and that it must be more complicated than what they could answer with a quick Google search. He also said that research questions often, but not always, start with either the word “how” or “why.”

What you should do:

Read what Anna is thinking below as she tries to do the assignment.
After the reading, answer the questions at the end of the monologue in your own mind.
Check your answers with ours at the end of Anna’s interior monologue.
Keep this demonstration in mind the next time you are in Anna’s spot, and you can mimic her actions and think about your own topic.

Anna’s Interior Monologue

Okay, I am going to have to write something—a research paper—about Antarctica. I don’t know anything about that place—I think it’s a continent. I can’t think of a single thing I’ve ever wanted to know about Antarctica. How will I come up with a research question about that place? Calls for Wikipedia, I guess.

Anna with thought bubble showing a desert

At https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctica . Just skimming. Pretty boring stuff. Oh, look– Antarctica’s a desert! I guess “desert” doesn’t have to do with heat. That’s interesting. What else could it have to do with? Maybe lack of precipitation? But there’s lots of snow and ice there. Have to think about that—what makes a desert a desert?

It says one to five thousand people live there in research stations. Year-round. Definitely, the last thing I’d ever do. “…there is no evidence that it was seen by humans until the 19th century.” I never thought about whether anybody lived in Antarctica first, before the scientists and stuff.

Lots of names—explorer, explorer… boring. It says Amundson reached the South Pole first. Who’s Amundson? But wait. It says, “One month later, the doomed Scott Expedition reached the pole.” Doomed? Doomed is always interesting. Where’s more about the Scott Expedition? I’m going to use that Control-F technique and type in Scott to see if I can find more about him on this page. Nothing beyond that one sentence shows up. Why would they have just that one sentence? I’ll have to click on the Scott Expedition link.

Anna with thought bubble showing Terra Nova Expedition

But it gives me a page called Terra Nova Expedition. What does that have to do with Scott? And just who was Scott? And why was his expedition doomed? There he is in a photo before going to Antarctica. Guess he was English. Other photos show him and his team in the snow. Oh, the expedition was named Terra Nova after the ship they sailed this time—in 1911. Scott had been there earlier on another ship.

Lots of stuff about preparing for the trip. Then stuff about expedition journeys once they were in Antarctica. Not very exciting—nothing about being doomed. I don’t want to write about this stuff.

Wait. The last paragraph of the first section says “For many years after his death, Scott’s status as a tragic hero was unchallenged,” but then it says that in the 20th-century people looked closer at the expedition’s management and at whether Scott and some of his team could be personally blamed for the catastrophe. That “remains controversial,” it says. Catastrophe? Personally blamed? Hmm.

Back to skimming. It all seems horrible to me. They actually planned to kill their ponies for meat, so when they actually did it, it was no surprise. Everything was extremely difficult. And then when they arrived at the South Pole, they found that the explorer Amundsen had beaten them. Must have been a big disappointment.

The homeward march was even worse. The weather got worse. The dog sleds that were supposed to meet them periodically with supplies didn’t show up. Or maybe the Scott group was lost and didn’t go to the right meeting places. Maybe that’s what that earlier statement meant about whether the decisions that were made were good ones. Scott’s diary said the crystallized snow made it seem like they were pushing and pulling the sledges through dry sand .

It says that before things turned really bad ( really bad? You’ve already had to eat your horses !), Scott allowed his men to put 30 pounds of rocks with fossils on the sledges they were pushing and dragging. Now was that sensible? The men had to push or pull those sledges themselves. What if it was those rocks that actually doomed those men?

But here it says that those rocks are the proof of continental drift. So how did they know those rocks were so important? Was that knowledge worth their lives? Could they have known?

Wow–there is drama on this page! Scott’s diary is quoted about their troubles on the expedition—the relentless cold, frostbite, and the deaths of their dogs. One entry tells of a guy on Scott’s team “now with hands as well as feet pretty well useless” voluntarily leaving the tent and walking to his death. The diary says that the team member’s last words were ”I am just going outside and may be some time.” Ha!

They all seem lost and desperate but still have those sledges. Why would you keep pulling and pushing those sledges containing an extra 30 pounds of rock when you are so desperate and every step is life or death?

Anna with thought bubble showing a diary

Then there’s Scott’s last diary entry, on March 29, 1912. “… It seems a pity but I do not think I can write more.” Well.

That diary apparently gave lots of locations of where he thought they were but maybe they were lost. It says they ended up only 11 miles from one of their supply stations. I wonder if anybody knows how close they were to where Scott thought they were.

I’d love to see that diary. Wouldn’t that be cool? Online? I’ll Google it.

Yes! At the British museum. Look at that! I can see Scott’s last entry IN HIS OWN HANDWRITING!

Anna with thought bubble showing a web page

Actually, if I decide to write about something that requires reading the diary, it would be easier to not have to decipher his handwriting. Wonder whether there is a typed version of it online somewhere?

Maybe I should pay attention to the early paragraph on the Terra Nova Expedition page in Wikipedia—about it being controversial whether Scott and his team made bad decisions so that they brought most of their troubles on themselves. Can I narrow my topic to just the controversy over whether bad decisions of Scott and his crew doomed them? Maybe it’s too big a topic if I consider the decisions of all team members. Maybe I should just consider Scott’s decisions.

So what research question could come from that? Maybe: how did Scott’s decisions contribute to his team’s deaths in Antarctica? But am I talking about his decisions before or after they left for Antarctica? Or the whole time they were a team? Probably too many decisions involved. More focused: How did Scott’s decisions after reaching the South Pole help or hurt the chances of his team getting back safely? That’s not bad—maybe. If people have written about that. There are several of his decisions discussed on the Wikipedia page, and I know there are sources at the bottom of that page.

Anna with thought bubble showing a dessert

Let me think—what else did I see that was interesting or puzzling about all this? I remember being surprised that Antarctica is a desert. So maybe I could make Antarctica as a desert my topic. My research question could be something like: Why is Antarctica considered a desert? But there has to be a definition of deserts somewhere online, so that doesn’t sound complicated enough. Once you know the definition of desert, you’d know the answer to the question. Professor Sanders says research questions are more complicated than regular questions.

What’s a topic I could care about? A question I really wonder about? Maybe those rocks with the fossils in them. It’s just so hard to imagine desperate explorers continuing to push those sledges with an extra 30 pounds of rocks on them. Did they somehow know how important they would be? Or were they just curious about them? Why didn’t they ditch them? Or maybe they just didn’t realize how close to death they were. Maybe I could narrow my Antarctica topic to those rocks.

Maybe my narrowed topic could be something like: The rocks that Scott and his crew found in Antarctica that prove continental drift. Maybe my research question could be: How did Scott’s explorers choose the rocks they kept?

Well, now all I have is questions about my questions. Like, is my professor going to think the question about the rocks is still about Antarctica? Or is it all about continental drift or geology or even the psychology of desperate people? And what has been written about the finding of those rocks? Will I be able to find enough sources? I’m also wondering whether my question about Scott’s decisions is too big—do I have enough time for it?

Anna with thought bubble showing people talking

I think my professor is the only one who can tell me whether my question about the rocks has enough to do with Antarctica. Since he’s the one who will be grading my paper. But a librarian can help me figure out the other things.

So Dr. Sanders and a librarian are next.

Reflection Questions

Was Anna’s choice to start with Wikipedia a good choice? Why or why not?
Have you ever used that Control-F technique?
At what points does Anna think about where to look for information?
At the end of this session, Anna hasn’t yet settled on a research question. So what did she accomplish? What good was all this searching and thinking?

Our Answers:

Was Anna’s choice to start with Wikipedia a good choice? Why or why not? Wikipedia is a great place to start a research project. Just make sure you move on from there, because it’s a not a good place to end up with your project. One place to move on to is the sources at the bottom of most Wikipedia pages.
Have you ever used that Control-F technique? If you haven’t used the Control-F technique, we hope you will. It can save you a lot of time and effort reading online material.
At what points does Anna think about where to look for information ? When she began; when she wanted to know more about the Scott expedition; when she wonders whether she could read Scott’s diary online; when she thinks about what people could answer her questions.
At the end of this session, Anna hasn’t yet settled on a research question. So what did she accomplish? What good was all this reading and thinking? There are probably many answers to this question. Ours includes that Anna learned more about Antarctica, the subject of her research project. She focused her thinking (even if she doesn’t end up using the possible research questions she’s considering) and practiced critical thinking skills, such as when she thought about what she could be interested in, when she worked to make her potential research questions more specific, and when she figured out what questions still needed answering at the end. She also practiced her skills at making meaning from what she read, investigating a story that she didn’t expect to be there and didn’t know had the potential of being one that she is interested in. She also now knows what questions she needs answered and whom to ask. These thinking skills are what college is all about. Anna is way beyond where she was when she started.

Choosing & Using Sources: A Guide to Academic Research Copyright © 2015 by Teaching & Learning, Ohio State University Libraries is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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1 Narrowing a Topic

Defining your research question is a process of working from the outside in: you start with the world of all possible topics (or your assigned topic) and narrow down until you have focused your interest enough to be able to state precisely what you want to find out, instead of only what you want to “write about.”

Going through this process can be the hardest part of doing research, but once you have a question that is realistically scoped (not too broad, not too narrow) it will guide the rest of your work.

The Process of Narrowing a Topic

Concentric circles from broad topic to narrow question

ACTIVITY: Which Topic is Narrower?

Now it’s your turn. Practice thinking about narrower topics with these 3 examples. Click the arrow to show the next question.

TIP: Use Some of the 5 W’s to Help Narrow Your Topic to a Searchable Question

Your assignment is to write on the topic of higher education. You decide you want to write about the high cost of tuition, but that is still too broad.

Start by asking some or all of the following questions.

From asking these questions, you might come up with a research question like this:

“How does the high cost of tuition impact the degree completion of mature college students?”

Image: “ Rq-narrow ” by Teaching and Learning, University Libraries is licensed under CC BY-4.0 .

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Narrowing a Topic

Process of Narrowing a Topic

Visualize narrowing a topic as starting with all possible topics and choosing narrower and narrower subsets until you have a specific enough topic to form a research question.

All Possible Topics – You’ll need to narrow your topic to do research effectively. Without specific areas of focus, it will be hard to even know where to begin.

Assigned Topics – Ideas about a narrower topic can come from anywhere. Often, a narrower topic boils down to deciding what’s interesting to you. One way to get ideas is to read background information in a source like Wikipedia.

Topic Narrowed by Initial Exploration – It’s wise to do some background reading about that narrower topic to a) learn more about it and b) learn specialized terms used by professionals and scholars who study it.

Topic Narrowed to Research Question(s) – A research question defines exactly what you are trying to find out. It will influence most of the steps you take to conduct the research.

Why Narrow a Topic?

Once you have a need for research—say, an assignment—you may need to prowl around a bit online to explore the topic and figure out what you actually want to find out and write about. For instance, maybe your assignment is to develop a poster about “spring” for an introductory horticulture course. The instructor expects you to narrow that topic to something you are interested in and that is related to your class.

Another way to view a narrowed topic is as a sliver of the whole topic.

Ideas about a narrower topic can come from anywhere. In this case, a narrower topic boils down to deciding what’s interesting to you about “spring” that is related to what you’re learning in your horticulture class and small enough to manage in the time you have. One way to get ideas would be to read about spring in Wikipedia, a reference database such as CREDO, or a subject encyclopedia. Look for things that seem interesting and relevant to your class, and then let one thing lead to another as you keep reading and thinking about likely possibilities that are more narrow than the enormous “spring” topic. Be sure to pay attention to the references at the bottom of most Wikipedia pages and pursue any that look interesting. Your instructor is not likely to let you cite Wikipedia, but those references may be scholarly sources that you could eventually decide to use and cite.

Jada Narrows Her Topic and Works on a Research Question

The Situation: Jada, an undergraduate, has been assigned a research paper on Antarctica. Her professor expects students to narrow the topic to something more specific about Antarctica because they won’t have time to cover that whole topic. Then they are to come up with a research question that their paper will answer.

The professor explained that the research question should be something they are interested in answering and that it must be more complicated than what they could answer with a quick Google search. She also said that research questions often start with either the word “how” or “why.”

Try it out:

Read what Jada is thinking below as she tries to do the assignment.
After the reading, answer the questions based on your own approach to research.
Check your answers with ours.
Keep this passage in mind the next time you start a research topic and mimic the process that Jada uses.

Female Student biting a pencil while looking at a laptop

Jada’s Thoughts

Okay, I have to write—a research paper—about Antarctica. I don’t know anything about that place—and I can’t think of a single thing I’d like to know about Antarctica. Calls for Wikipedia, I guess.

Guess I’ll go here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctica . Just skimming. Pretty boring stuff. Oh, look– Antarctica’s a desert! I guess “desert” doesn’t have to do with heat. That’s interesting. Why is it considered a desert, there’s lots of snow and ice there. Have to think about that—what makes a desert a desert.

It says one to five thousand people live there in research stations. Year-round. And there is no evidence that it was seen by humans until the 19th century. I never thought about whether anybody lived in Antarctica first, before explorers and scientists.

Lots of names—explorers, others. It says Amundsen reached the South pole first. Who’s Amundsen? But wait. It says, “One month later, the doomed Scott Expedition reached the pole.” Doomed? Doomed is always interesting. Where is there more information about the Scott Expedition? There is only one sentence. Why would they have just that one sentence? I’ll have to click on the Scott Expedition link.

Members of the Robert F. Scott Expedition

Terra Nova…

But it gives me a page called Terra Nova Expedition. What does that have to do with Scott? Who was he and why was his expedition doomed? There he is in a photo before going to Antarctica. Guess he was English. Other photos show him and his team in the snow. Oh, the expedition was named Terra Nova after the ship they sailed this time—in 1911. Scott was also there earlier on another ship.

Lots of info about preparing for the trip. Then stuff about expedition journeys once they were in Antarctica. Not very exciting—nothing about being doomed.

Back to skimming. It all seems horrible to me. They actually planned to kill their ponies for meat. Everything was extremely difficult. And then when they arrived at the South Pole, they found that the explorer Amundsen had beaten them. Must have been a big disappointment.

The homeward march was even worse. The weather was bad. The dog sleds that were supposed to meet them periodically with supplies didn’t show up. Or maybe the Scott group was lost and didn’t go to the right meeting places. Maybe that’s what that earlier statement meant about whether the decisions that were made were good ones. Scott’s diary said the crystallized snow made it seem like they were pushing and pulling the sleds through dry sand .

It says that before things turned really bad, Scott allowed his men to put 30 pounds of rocks with fossils on the sleds they were pushing and dragging. Now was that sensible? But here it says that those rocks are the proof of continental drift. So how did they know those rocks were so important? Was that knowledge worth their lives? Could they have known?

Scott’s diary is quoted about their troubles on the expedition—the relentless cold, frostbite, and the deaths of their dogs. One entry tells of a guy on Scott’s team “now with hands as well as feet pretty well useless” voluntarily leaving the tent and walking to his death. The diary says that the team member’s last words were ”I am just going outside and may be some time.”

They all seem lost and desperate but still have those sleds. Why would you keep pulling and pushing those sleds containing an extra 30 pounds of rock when you are so desperate and every step is life or death?

Last page from the Robert F. Scott Diary

Then there’s Scott’s last diary entry, on March 29, 1912. “… It seems a pity but I do not think I can write more.”. The diary apparently gave lots of locations of where he thought they were but maybe they were lost. It says they ended up only 11 miles from one of their supply stations.

I’d love to see that diary. Wouldn’t that be cool? Online? I’ll Google it. Yes! it’s at the British Museum. Look at that! I can see Scott’s last entry IN HIS OWN HANDWRITING! And there’s a digital copy too.

I wonder if I should narrow my topic to just the controversy over whether the expedition was doomed because of the bad decisions made by Scott and his crew? Maybe it’s too big a topic if I consider the decisions of all team members. Maybe I should just consider Scott’s decisions. They should be noted in the diary.

So what research question could come from that? Maybe: how did Scott’s decisions contribute to his team’s deaths in Antarctica? Need to be more focused: How did Scott’s decisions after reaching the South Pole help or hurt the chances of his team getting back safely? There are several of his decisions discussed on the Wikipedia page, and I know there are sources at the bottom of that page.

Really, a desert?

Let me think—what else did I see that was interesting or puzzling about all this? I remember being surprised that Antarctica is a desert. So maybe I could make the desert of Antarctica my topic. My research question could be something like: Why is Antarctica considered a desert? But there has to be a definition of deserts somewhere online, so that doesn’t sound complicated enough. Maybe those rocks with the fossils in them. It’s just so hard to imagine desperate explorers continuing to push those sleds with an extra 30 pounds of rocks on them. Did they somehow know how important they would be? Why didn’t they ditch them? Or maybe they just didn’t realize how close to death they were. Maybe I could narrow my Antarctica topic to those rocks.

Maybe my topic could be something like The rocks that Scott and his crew found in Antarctica that prove continental drift. Maybe my research question could be: How did Scott’s explorers choose the rocks they kept? Or maybe I should stick with why Scott and his crew made bad decisions.

I should ask.

I think my professor is the only one who can tell me whether my question about the rocks has enough to do with Antarctica. Since she’s the one who will be grading my paper. But a librarian can help me figure out the other things. So Dr. Sanders and a librarian are next.

Was Jada’s choice to start with Wikipedia a good choice? Why or why not?
Have you ever skimmed resources first and then read more deeply later?
At what points does Jada think about where to look for information?
At the end of this session, Jada hasn’t yet settled on a research question. So what did she accomplish? What good was all this searching and thinking?

Our Answers

Was Jada’s choice to start with Wikipedia a good choice? Although not usually cited in research papers, Wikipedia is a good place to learn more about all kinds of topics. Information is usually general in nature and you can check out the references at the bottom of the page. Use those links to find additional resources. This may lead you to library based sources like subject dictionaries, encyclopedias, or guides.
Have you ever skimmed resources first and then read more deeply later? When first exploring your topic you may choose to skim resources. That is a very brief read looking for interesting and useful information. Later when you select a topic and look for resources that provide deeper, more focused information.
At what points does Jada think about where to look for information? After receiving the core part of the topic (Antarctica), she begins looking for general information and becomes curious about the Scott expedition. As she learns more she thinks about where she can look for additional information, such as the diary mentioned in Wikipedia..
At the end of this session, Jada hasn’t yet settled on a research question. So what did she accomplish? What good was all this searching and thinking? The background information that Jada looked at helped her to focus on the problems with the Scott Expedition. She slowly narrows down some of the issues and centers on the weight of the rocks. She considers two different questions (one more narrow than the other) and intends to seek input from the professor and librarian. Taking the time to explore her topic has given her ideas useful for a solid research question.

Exercise: Determine the Topic Order

Critical Thinking in Academic Research Copyright © 2022 by Cindy Gruwell and Robin Ewing is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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5.3: Narrowing a Topic

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Process of Narrowing a Topic

Visualize narrowing a topic as starting with all possible topics and choosing narrower and narrower subsets until you have a specific enough topic to form a research question.

All Possible Topics – You’ll need to narrow your topic to do research effectively. Without specific areas of focus, it will be hard to even know where to begin.

Topic Narrowed to Research Question(s) – A research question defines exactly what you are trying to find out. It will influence most of the steps you take to conduct the research.

Why Narrow a Topic?

Another way to view a narrowed topic is as a sliver of the whole topic.

Jada Narrows Her Topic and Works on a Research Question

The professor explained that the research question should be something they are interested in answering and that it must be more complicated than what they could answer with a quick Google search. She also said that research questions often start with either the word “how” or “why.”

Try it out:

Read what Jada is thinking below as she tries to do the assignment.
After the reading, answer the questions based on your own approach to research.
Check your answers with ours.
Keep this passage in mind the next time you start a research topic and mimic the process that Jada uses.

Jada’s Thoughts

Guess I’ll go here https://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctica . Just skimming. Pretty boring stuff. Oh, look– Antarctica’s a desert! I guess “desert” doesn’t have to do with heat. That’s interesting. Why is it considered a desert, there’s lots of snow and ice there. Have to think about that—what makes a desert a desert.

Terra Nova…

Lots of info about preparing for the trip. Then stuff about expedition journeys once they were in Antarctica. Not very exciting—nothing about being doomed.

A diary…

Really, a desert?

I should ask.

Was Jada’s choice to start with Wikipedia a good choice? Why or why not?
Have you ever skimmed resources first and then read more deeply later?
At what points does Jada think about where to look for information?
At the end of this session, Jada hasn’t yet settled on a research question. So what did she accomplish? What good was all this searching and thinking?

Our Answers

Was Jada’s choice to start with Wikipedia a good choice? Although not usually cited in research papers, Wikipedia is a good place to learn more about all kinds of topics. Information is usually general in nature and you can check out the references at the bottom of the page. Use those links to find additional resources. This may lead you to library based sources like subject dictionaries, encyclopedias, or guides.
Have you ever skimmed resources first and then read more deeply later? When first exploring your topic you may choose to skim resources. That is a very brief read looking for interesting and useful information. Later when you select a topic and look for resources that provide deeper, more focused information.
At what points does Jada think about where to look for information? After receiving the core part of the topic (Antarctica), she begins looking for general information and becomes curious about the Scott expedition. As she learns more she thinks about where she can look for additional information, such as the diary mentioned in Wikipedia..
At the end of this session, Jada hasn’t yet settled on a research question. So what did she accomplish? What good was all this searching and thinking? The background information that Jada looked at helped her to focus on the problems with the Scott Expedition. She slowly narrows down some of the issues and centers on the weight of the rocks. She considers two different questions (one more narrow than the other) and intends to seek input from the professor and librarian. Taking the time to explore her topic has given her ideas useful for a solid research question.

Exercise: Determine the Topic Order

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here: https://minnstate.pressbooks.pub/ctar/?p=59#h5p-7

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Getting Started: Information Research Tips

Narrowing a topic.

Flow of Information
Major Online Encyclopedias
Dictionaries
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Broadening a Topic
How to Read a Citation
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Library Lingo

If your topic is too broad or vague you will find too much information and will need to narrow the focus.

Example: I'm thinking of doing a paper on "fashion." This topic could develop in many different ways.

Hint: Ask Yourself Questions About Your Topic:

What do you know about it? What don't you know?
What aspects of your topic interest you: historical, sociological, psychological, etc.?
What time period do you want to cover?
On what geographic region do you want to focus?
A brief summary or a lengthy explanation?
Periodical articles, books, essays, encyclopedia articles?
Statistics?

Sample Topic Narrowing Chart:

<< Previous: Broadening a Topic
Next: How to Read a Citation >>
Last Updated: Apr 7, 2024 11:46 PM
URL: https://guides.library.ucla.edu/start

Selecting a Research Topic

Why should i narrow my research topic, considerations, topic selection process.

Topic Selection Strategies
EBSCO's Research Starters
Defining Scope

If you have a need to conduct research for a course at any level, you should understand the significance of narrowing down your research topic. Reasons for narrowing down a research topic are:

The field you are studying is much too broad, so you cannot formulate a research question or hypothesis from it.
You are not quite sure what you want to cover in your research project/paper.
You feel overwhelmed by the research topic you have already selected.
Your assignment requires you to research a topic that has not yet been covered (research gap).

Before you begin your search for a research topic, there are some things to consider that could impact the topic you choose:

In what field of study is your assignment? In what course is your project?
Does your assignment require you to research a specific topic within a particular discipline?
How narrow or broad does your topic need to be?
Who will be reading your paper?
Will you be presenting your project to an audience?
What type of paper are you writing? This may determine the scope of your topic.

The process of narrowing down a research topic can be illustrated by the image below ("Choosing & Using Sources," 2016). It illustrates the process of thinking about all potential research topics, then narrowing it down to a specific research question. This diagram can assist you in determining your topic because it illustrates how all possible topics and subjects transform into your final research topic. It is also recommended that you refer to your assignment instructions for guidance on topic selection.

All possible topics: Represents all potential topics in your field of discipline. This is often overwhelming, so it is typical to rule out irrelevant topics to create a "smaller" pool of topics.

Assigned topic: This is a combination of determining topics that are interesting to you and that fulfill your assignment requirements. You might have more than one topic, so you may need to narrow them down further.

Topic narrowed by initial exploration: This results from conducting preliminary research on your assigned topic(s). During this process, you will learn more about the topics you are considering. From there, you can determine if the topic is still of interest.

Topic narrowed to research question(s): From the information you have learned in your preliminary research, you formulate a research question that identifies what your paper/project will attempt to discover.

The video below from Wilsey Library demonstrates how to narrow down a general research topic.

<< Previous: Welcome
Next: Topic Selection Strategies >>
Last Updated: May 22, 2023 10:46 AM
URL: https://library.tiffin.edu/selectingaresearchtopic

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1 Narrowing a Topic

Going through this process can be the hardest part of doing research, but once you have a question that is realistically scoped (not too broad, not too narrow) it will guide the rest of your work.

The Process of Narrowing a Topic

ACTIVITY: Which Topic is Narrower?

Now it’s your turn. Practice thinking about narrower topics with these 3 examples. Click the arrow to show the next question.

TIP: Use Some of the 5 WS to Help Narrow Your Topic to a Searchable Question

Your assignment is to write on the topic of higher education. You decide you want to write about the high cost of tuition, but that is still too broad.

Start by asking some or all of the following questions.

From asking these questions, you might come up with a research question like this:

“How does the high cost of tuition impact the degree completion of mature college students?”

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Part 1. Get Started on your Research

1 Narrowing a Topic

Defining your research question is a process of working from the outside in: you start with the world of all possible topics (or your assigned topic) and narrow down until you’ve focused your interest enough to be able to state precisely what you want to find out, instead of only what you want to “write about.”

Going through this process can be the hardest part of doing research, but once you have a question that is realistically scoped (not too broad, not too narrow) it will guide the rest of your work.

The Process of Narrowing a Topic

ACTIVITY: Which topic is narrower?

Now it’s your turn. Practice thinking about narrower topics with these 3 examples. Click the arrow to show the next question.

TIP: Use some of the 5 Ws to help narrow your topic to a searchable question

Your assignment is to write on the topic of higher education. You decide you want to write about the high cost of tuition. But that’s still too broad.

Start by asking some, or all, of the following questions.

From asking these questions, you might come up with a research question like this:

“How does the high cost of tuition impact the degree completion of mature college students?”

But Avoid Getting too Narrow

Be careful about getting too specific with your research question. Not every question that you come up with will be searchable.

For the above question about college tuition, the important questions to ask would be who? and what? Trying to find information on the impact of rising tuition in a particular city or province will be too restrictive, and the location may, in fact, be irrelevant to the search; a large-scale study across Canada or North America would likely yield applicable information.

The bottom line is, you will be working toward a balanced research question that is specific enough to guide you in your research, but not too restrictive.

ACTIVITY: Find the balanced topic

Now it’s your turn. Practice thinking about balanced topics with these 3 examples. Click the arrow to show the next question.

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Thesis Helpers

Find the best tips and advice to improve your writing. Or, have a top expert write your paper.

Narrowing Down Research Topic: Ultimate Guide With Examples

For most students, narrowing down a research topic makes a huge difference between how they carried out the research while in high school and how they should conduct their research projects in college.

Choosing a suitable research topic requires that you work from outside in. Often, you’ll start with a broader topic and narrow it down to a level where you can establish what you’d like to find out rather than only what you’d like to “write about.”

Whether you’ve been given a general topic to investigate, given several problems to study, or you need to come up with your own topic to study, you should ensure that the research problem’s scope underpinning the study isn’t too broad.

A Step-by-Step Example on Narrowing a Research Topic

To narrow down a specific topic, follow these steps:

1. Choose a general topic area.

An example could be employee turnover.

2. Give specific description of the topic area.

Example: turnover in the nursing industry

3. Mention an aspect of the specific topic:

Example: factors that affect turnover among registered nurses

To narrow down a topic’s focus, follow these steps:

4. Note down extra specifics about the topic.

Example: Workplace stress and turnover among registered nurses.

5. Turn the topic into a sentence or statement.

Example: Workplace stress has a significant impact on turnover among registered nurses.

6. Fine-tune your topic’s focus using elements such as time, place, and relationship.

Example: Workplace stress causes increased turnover among registered nurses in Brooklyn.

What’s Too Broad?

College students get tired when an instructor tells them that the topic they chose is too broad. This problem is very common. How do you tell if your topic is too broad?

If you’ve summed up the topic in one or two words, such as education, school cheating, corporal punishment, smoking, or overweight teens, it’s obviously too broad.

If you visit the library and realize you are staring at a whole section of books that you can use as sources for your study topic, then the topic is too broad. A good topic should address a specific problem or question. You should spot four to five books (or even fewer) on a shelf that can effectively address a specific research problem.

If you can’t easily come up with a thesis statement for your research paper, then chances are your topic is too broad.

The Dangers Of Not Narrowing Down

If you don’t do that, you’ll find it challenging to handle the study problem on the time and space provided. You might face a couple of issues if you choose to write on a very broad PhD research topic. The issues include:

Finding tons of sources of information, which makes it difficult to choose what to omit or include, or what’s the most essential.

Finding generic information that makes it tricky to come up with a clear framework for addressing the research problem

Lack of adequate parameters to effectively define the research problem makes it challenging to identify and use correct methods required for its analysis.

You come across information that addresses a wide array of concepts that can’t be included in a single paper. Consequently, you easily get into unnecessary details.

When starting to write a research paper, there’s a common challenge – determining how to narrow down a research topic.

Even if the professor assigns you a specific topic of study, you’ll still be required to narrow it down to some degree. Besides, the professor will find it boring to mark fifty papers talking about the same thing.

That’s why you should narrow your study’s focus early in the writing process. That way, you won’t try to do too much in one research paper.

Tips For Narrowing A Research Topic

Select one lens and use it for viewing a research problem. The other alternative is to focus on just one angle. For example, instead of studying the different factors that cause cancer, study how smoking can cause lung cancer.

Figure out if the initial unit or variable of analysis can be partitioned into smaller components, so you analyze them with more precision. For example, a study on the use of tobacco among teenagers can be narrowed down to chewing tobacco instead of all forms of tobacco use or teenagers in general. A better approach would be to focus on male teenagers in a specific age range and region who chew tobacco.

Methodology

The methods used to gather data can reduce the scope of interpretive analysis required to address your research problem. For example, you can design a single case study to generate data that won’t require an extensive explanation as that of using multiple cases.

In general, analyzing a smaller geographical unit means a narrow topical focus. For example, instead of studying trade relations in Asia, focus on trade relations between China and Singapore as a case study to guide you in explaining problems in that region.

Relationship

Find out how two or more variables or perspectives relate to each other. When you design a study around the correlation of different variables, it helps you to reduce the scope of your analysis. Examples of variables to look out for are:

Cause and effect

Group and individual

Compare and contrast

Contemporary and historical

Problem and solution

Male and female

Opinion and reason

Study periods can be assigned timeframes. Generally, the shorter a study’s time period, the more narrow its focus becomes. For example, instead of studying trade relations between China and Singapore, focus on the trade relations between China and Singapore between 2010 and 2018.

Focus the study topic with regard to a particular class of people, phenomena, or places. For instance, a study of developing better housing near schools may focus on condominiums, universities, or building materials only.

Combination

You can choose at least two of the above tips to narrow down to a specific topic.

Narrowing Down A Research Topic Is Vital – Use Our Advice!

In sum, you can use the broad topic given by your instructor to narrow down, or you can come up with your own topic first and narrow it down (some teachers give this freedom). Either way, you should ensure your narrowed topic is specific and more of a sentence than just a couple of words.

Remember, you want to be able to write a good thesis statement from the topic and proceed to write a paper on it. You can ask for feedback from your friends or instructor to confirm the topic is good and worth writing about. As you can see, it’s easier to write on a specific topic than one that’s too broad.

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Narrowing your research topic

Contributors: Derrian Goebel

Narrowing a research topic is moving from a general topic, like global warming, to a tighter research focus, such as helping the environment by improving travel modes (example below). However, you can’t just forget about the big picture—how your argument/claim fits into the bigger discussion including connections to other viewpoints on your topic.

To ensure a connection with other viewpoints and the bigger picture, ask yourself some questions when revising your paper:

Are you showing readers how your narrowed topic effects, or relates to, the bigger picture?
When going through each topic point, do you acknowledge opposing viewpoints?
When you are ready to relate your narrowed topic to the bigger picture, do you mention other topics included in the larger discussion?

Example: Solving Global Warming—Do Something

Plant trees
Best travel

Bigger picture

“Solving Global Warming—Do Something” is the larger discussion about climate change and the environment. “Use less,” “plant trees” and “be a catalyst” are some branches stemming from the larger discussion. The “best travel” topic is only one part of the global warming bigger picture. Articulate the multiple standpoints within the bigger picture :

So, for example in the previous picture, you will need to be able to locate your narrowed topic (best travel) in relation to the other parts of the main issue.
Show your readers how your focused subject is connected to these other conversations.

Narrowed research topic

How people can buy hybrid/electric cars, car pool with co-workers, walk, bike or use public transportation (above). Opposing viewpoints are ones that argue within your focused area.

Explore the multiple arguments, perspectives and alternative positions within your narrowed research topic:

Take the time and give fair consideration to these other perspectives, which will benefit your argument by offering readers a fair report.

For example, not everyone will live close enough to their work to walk or ride a bike. These, too, are parts of the argument—they are the alternative point(s) of view.

If you can argue, then do so: “People may not be able to walk or ride a bike, but what about the bus?” Otherwise, it is best to simply acknowledge and move on: “…which is a good point.” This is an example of fair reporting.

So overall, when your teacher asks you to focus your research, don’t forget that connection to the bigger discussion in which you were initially interested. Also, don’t forget other opinions for a fair and balanced essay.

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Answered By: Allison Ball Last Updated: Apr 25, 2024 Views: 89078

Once you have chosen a research topic, you will need to narrow it down into a research statement or question. The sooner you do this in your research process, the more time you'll save because you can conduct more focused searches.

Below are some common ways you can narrow down a research topic, or get started by using our Brainstorming Topics & Search Terms tutorial .

By demographic characteristics

Narrow it down by age group, occupation, ethnic group, gender, etc.

e.g. challenges faced by international college graduates entering the workforce

By relevant issues

Try to identify key issues related to your topic, especially ones that you have an opinion on. You can turn your opinion into your thesis statement or research question.

e.g. challenges faced by college graduates who are unable to find work related to their degrees

By location

Focus on a specific country, province, city, or type of environment (rural vs. urban).

e.g. challenges faced by college graduates entering the workforce in rural Ontario

By timeframe

Decide whether you want to study recent events or a historical time period. This will also help you decide how current the information you use must be.

e.g. challenges faced by college graduates entering the workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic

You can take the perspective of looking for causes of an issue you are researching.

e.g. Do employers hire fewer recent college graduates?

For more ideas, see Narrowing the Scope on our Brainstorming Guide.

When developing a research question, think about: Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How. Also consider what information you need in order to prove your thesis and try some test searches on the library website to ensure you can find enough relevant research to back up your ideas before you settle on your final topic.

Need more information?

Where do I start my research?

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Narrow Down Your Topic: Example #1

Narrow down your topic: example #2, try narrowing down your topic....

Choosing Keywords
Find Articles
Get Help This link opens in a new window

Forming a Research Question

Topic Development

Concept Map

Topics/Thesis

#1 Blank Worksheet Complete the attached Topic Development / Pre-Search Worksheet.
#2 Blank Worksheet (Long Version) Complete the attached Research Exploration Form.
#2 Fracking Example (Long Version - with additional Social Justice questions)
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Next: Choosing Keywords >>
Last Updated: Mar 15, 2024 9:26 AM
URL: https://libguides.lmu.edu/needatopic

precious tips for writing research papers

How to narrow down a research topic: step-by-step guide.

Whenever writing any piece of an academic research assignment, one of the essential elements a writer must put into consideration is the topic. A topic can make the research process simple or harder, depending on the student’s specialization. Again, a topic can be good enough but common in a manner that many students have already done it. That is why professors always advise students to take notes when deciding on the research topic; thus, the idea of narrowing a research topic becomes crucial.

Some students have adequate research skills but don’t know how to pick a topic. Choosing a simple topic can seem quite basic, and the professor will assume you didn’t put in enough effort during your research period, and this can attract low grades. On the other hand, settling on a complex topic means you must have adequate knowledge of the topic. Again, a complex topic can mean that you may run out of research ideas before you finish your paper, which means wasting time and attracting low grades. For a better understanding of what is a narrowed topic is, keep reading.

Narrow topic meaning: how to narrow down a research topic

Narrowing down a topic means having a broad topic with a lot of concepts, then breaking it down to a research question or a research topic. The reason for narrowing a research topic is to ease the research process. When you have a broad topic, it means you will get many sources to use as you research, and a lot of information might ruin the center of focus when writing your point. In the end, you will have diverse ideas that might be irrelevant to the requirements of your research specialization.

Note : A professor can give you a predefined topic, or you can get the freedom to pick your own question. No matter the criteria used to get a topic, always narrow down your research topic to ease the research.

So, a narrowed topic is a simplified question or research topic that focuses on a particular area or thing. This means when researching on a narrowed topic, you simply maintain the focus on the main point.

How to narrow a research topic: narrow topic examples

When you have a research topic, you will need to modify it further into a simplified statement or question. The reason for doing this is to save you time, as you will focus on a specific search area.

In this section, you will learn distinct ways how to narrow a topic by giving broad topics examples and a simplified version of the same.

Different ways of narrowing down a topic

1. narrowing down a research topic by location.

When your research topic is about a place or a location, ensure you be specific about the exact place to avoid mixed ideas while researching. In your question or statement, let the reader know if it is a rural place, an urban place, the name of the city, province, country, and such information.

For instance: What are the challenges college students from urban Pakistan encounter? This is a simplified version, instead of a statement like, what challenges do college students encounter?

2. Narrowing a topic by timeframe

In your statement or question, determine whether your study is related to past events or recent events. This is crucial as it will help you determine the information you will use.

For instance, how did graduate students overcome challenges when starting to work during the covid-19?

3. Narrowing a research topic by demographic characteristics

This one involves adjusting the topic by considering the gender, ethnic group, occupation, and age groups, among other considerations.

An example : What challenges do international college graduates encounter when starting to work?

4. Using causes to narrowing down a topic

In your topic, you can evaluate what causes an issue you want to research, then frame a simplified topic statement.

An example : Explain why employers prefer few college graduates during the employment process.

5. Using relevant issues to narrow down a topic

The key element here is to determine the key aspects of the topic. You can base the key elements on your opinion, then turn it into a research topic or question.

An example : What challenges do university graduates who can’t find a good job face? Instead of challenges students who cannot find a job face.

In any research work, especially for academic purposes, how you present your topic is significant to the whole research process. Ensure you focus on the key points as you narrow down your research topic.

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How To Narrow Down a Research Topic: Easy Steps To Follow

Are you one of those who have been burning the midnight oil to understand the concept of narrowing a research topic? Do you want to know how to narrow down a research topic painstakingly? Well, my friend, this post is specifically customized to help you accomplish just that.

Read on to learn everything you need to know about narrowing research topics from gurus.

What Is A Broad Topic?

It is a topic that focuses on one important concept. When you search online for a broad topic, you will find thousands of results for you to look through.

A general case is mostly summed up in one or two words, as seen in the broad topic examples below:

Industrial strikes,
College students, or
Coronavirus vaccines

In such instances, the research problem’s scope underpinning the study is too broad. Students will therefore face rough handling issues due to the avalanche of information available. The consequences will be a shallow research paper that does not cover every section of a particular concept.

The pointers to a broad research topic are as follows:

Finding too much information: If you land on hundred upon thousands of articles on the subject of research Data is broken into specific aspects: You will find several bits of the same topic in your search results An issue that can sum up in one or two words: These will be broad terms that suggest a more comprehensive view of the concept It does not address a specific problem: Such a topic generally looks at a research question instead of delving into the nitty-gritty.

If this is what you have been doing and you want to learn how to narrow a research topic, help is on the way!

Understanding A Narrow Topic

A narrow topic usually has many concepts and focuses on a specific group or geographic area. When you search out this kind of matter on your browser, you will find few, if any, results. The main feature of a narrow topic is that it addresses a specific problem or question.

Why Narrowing Down a Research Topic is Important

Several problems arise from a broad research topic. However, when you customize your case to a specific niche, you will enjoy the following benefits:

Finding manageable sources of information: This makes it easy for you to know what to omit or include or what’s essential over the other.
It helps you find specific solutions to a problem: With this, you will have a clear framework for addressing your research problem.
You will adequately find parameters to effectively define the research problem: This enables you to identify and use the correct methods required for its analysis in your research.
You will avoid unnecessary details: Narrowing down a topic helps students avoid coming across a wide array of concepts that can’t be included in a single paper.
It gives you enough time and space to complete your form: Instead of wasting time on irrelevant ideas, you will handle your paper’s essential components on time.

Determining how to narrow down a topic is a crucial challenge for most college and university students. It may come as a surprise to you that even some post-graduate students have it rough when narrowing down a general topic.

We can break down every concept to some degree despite its complexity. Remember that your professor will be marking over 100 papers, and if your topic is not specified, you might end up writing the same thing as your classmate.

But what’s the secret to narrowing down educational research topics?

How To Narrow a Topic Like An Expert

Before you think of finding research paper help, our experts have collated a list of guidelines to help you narrow your research topic effortlessly:

Consider one aspect of a topic out of the many: Every issue comes with several elements or angles with which one can approach it. However, a compelling research topic will consider one lens and zoom it in for a top paper. Focusing on one angle is essential in keeping your reader on track.

For instance , instead of studying the different vaccines used for coronavirus, learn how the Pfizer vaccine effectively provides immunity against COVID-19.

Look at your topic’s underlying components: It is critical to point out the initial unit or variable of analysis that can be partitioned into smaller parts. With this, you will be able to handle the subject with more precision.

For instance , a study on online writing help among college students can be narrowed down to essay writing services instead of all writing assistance forms. Having such a topic will help you cover this aspect adequately.

Pause and look at your research methodology: How and by what means you gather your information extensively affects the scope of interpretive analysis required to address your research question. It is advisable to develop a single case study to generate your data rather than using multiple cases, which may require extensive explanations. Good ideas for research will make your research process easy and manageable.
The geographical unit matters: A narrow topical focus of a particular geographical location is essential in narrowing your research topic. When you have a more prominent place to cover, it won’t be easy to research terms of cost and time. Furthermore, a broader area means different cultural, social, or political considerations.

For instance , instead of studying general US elections, focus on senatorial polls in a particular state.

Determine the relationship between two or more variables: By looking at how different perspectives relate to each other, you will narrow down a research topic to a manageable unit. It will also help you cut down on the scope of your analysis.

Example : different variables to consider are male and female, cause and effect, opinion and reason, compare and contrast, problem and solution, and group versus the individual.

What is the study period? You can assign timeframes to the different study periods at hand. Having a shorter study period gives you a more narrow focus on a particular research problem. Consequently, you will be able to map out specific and relevant events that would not otherwise have been found when using a more extended study period.

Example : instead of studying the Black Lives Matter Movement’s rise, focus on the Black Lives Matter protests from January 2020 to February 2021.

The type of study you are conducting: Different studies differ according to the places, phenomena, or classes of people. Also, they vary depending on the field of assignments such as engineering, humanities, or social sciences. Therefore, to effectively narrow down your topic, consider identifying the specific type of study first.

For instance , a survey of enhancing racial and gender equality may focus on workplaces, schools, religious organizations, or government institutions alone.

The population you are covering is essential: A society comprises various sects in terms of age, nationality, gender, race, or social class. Identifying a specific niche and zooming your lenses to such a group’s particular needs is vital in narrowing topics.

Some of the quality narrow topic examples include: why more males are contracting coronavirus or why the youth are excessive internet users.

Look at previous research done: By considering what other authors have done, you will know the covered aspects in-depth and which ones were left out. It will enable us to focus on a specific concept of a particular problem. It will also prevent repetition and duplication of already existing knowledge.
Apply the answers to the 5W’ss: When you consider who, what, when, why, and where, you will be able to narrow it down to a specific topic.

For instance , when you are talking about exam cheating, look at (who, why) students cheat in exams or the effects of students cheating in exams.

By following the expert guidelines above, you will not try to do too much in one research paper at the expense of your sleep, money, and academic grades. The tips are practical and applicable to students of all levels.

With a narrow topic, you will be able to write a great thesis statement and proceed to write an all-inclusive paper on it.

How To Fine Tune A Topic That Is Too Narrow

Did you know that you can have a topic that is too narrow? The effects of this are devastating and may frustrate your entire research process. Indicators of an issue that is too narrow are as follows:

Few or no results after searching on your browser
You are unable to create multiple keywords from the case you have chosen
It is not researchable after trying out several search engines and Boolean operators

Such a topic may give you a paragraph at most, and you know what this means for your grades! However, you can avoid this by:

Exploring related issues: By brainstorming similar topics or words, you will find one with more information resources.
Making comparisons: Compare the idea you have with others and see what information is available out there on your topic of designation.
Finding a related topic that is not popular: It is impossible to say that you can come up with something that has never existed before. However, finding a foundational topic and exploring other aspects of it is vital in fine-tuning your research idea.
Practice research: The art of study is one learned with time. The more you Google out research topics, the more you understand the difference between what is broad and what is narrow. It will also help you know how much you are finding, what information is easy to find, and what sources are readily available.

Keep in mind that the topic you settle on will determine the course of your research process. An issue that is too narrow will confine you to a particular corner, whereas a broad one will have you jumping here and there.

If you wish to explore more narrowing topic examples, you can visit our feature-rich website. Moreover, our professional writers are more than willing to help you narrow down your topic to something manageable.

Try our top-notch thesis writing help today and see your grades soar higher than the eagles!

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How to Narrow Down a Research Topic Succesfully

Narrowing a research topic can be hectic, but it is important to do it upfront to ensure your research workflows well. However, this depends on the number of words, the research should have. Do you know how to narrow a research topic? We will provide an overview on narrowing down a topic.

Are you looking for online research paper help? We have the best professional writers that will turn your ideas into quality research papers. Our expert writers help students in college and university. Thereby, be assured of quality work that will gain you top grades at cheap prices.

How to Find a Research Topic?

This depends on your field of study, through this, you will be able to research a relevant topic that you can work on. Getting a research topic should be based on what you want to focus on. A narrow topic will help make it easier to do your research.

Enquire From The Professor – While searching for a research topic, request advice from your professor or supervisor to ensure you get the best topic for your course. In some cases, the supervisors can narrow down on the type of research that you can do. Thereby, making it easier for you to choose a topic. Check The Resources Available – It depends on the number of resources you have. It wouldn’t be right to do a topic that will require you to travel a long distance to go collect your data. Even though there are various ways you can collect data online, it is better when it is an accessible place to get information upfront. What is Your Interest or Hobby? – Your research topic should be based on your hobbies or interests. It shouldn’t just be a topic, but one that you feel most interested in. This will give you the zeal to research more and do your best to provide the best paper to your professor. Your interests will make sure that you are highly motivated to carry out your research in college or university. As time goes by, when you further your studies, you can still do broader research on the same. Previously Done Research – While choosing a topic, ensure there is evidence of previous research on it. It might be hectic if you decide to just do a topic that no one else has ever dealt with. Remember to stick to your field and not just do anything for the sake. There is a wide variety of narrowing a topic examples that you can use as a starting point. The topic needs to be researchable to prevent you from getting issues when carrying out your research. Ideas From Books – Getting a place to begin may be hectic at first. You can even get an idea from books you have been reading and strike an interest. Always choose a topic that sounds interesting. There are a wide variety of books that you can use to get ideas. However, try to get a narrow topic from the broad topics.

How to Narrow Down a Topic

Now that you have gotten a suitable general topic, we can work on how to narrow down the topic. You can either decide to use one or two of the methods. However, using a combination of the methods is most suitable.

Ask Yourself the Three W’s And H.

While choosing a topic you need to ask yourself, why, what, where, when, how, and who? This will help you know whether the topic of interest is good

One of many narrow topic examples includes: Examine food security impact on health in America. Who? People in America

What? Food security

When? Currently in the 21 st century

Where? America – which state specifically?

Why? The impact of food security on health

How? Food security impact.

Through that, you can see whether your general topic is relevant and how to break it down.

Ask Further Questions

On this, you need to consider whether the topic is going to be of importance a few years from now or is just going to be relevant at the moment. In this, ask yourself about the problems, the effect on the target group, how the target group benefits, and the group responsible for it.

Hence, in this, you will research how food security impacts the target people. What problems can be faced if it is not achieved? On this, get to know the motives and effect on the people the food is intended for.

Narrowing down a research topic helps you get a better overview of what you are researching. You can check other scholarly articles to know what people have previously researched and the gap left to fill.

Consider Using the SOCRAPR Model

Take your research topic and narrow it down using the SOCRAPR model . With this, consider these different aspects.

Similarities – How is food security now compared to earlier years? Opposites – How has food security changed over the years? Contrast – How is food security affecting the kind of health people have? Relationship – This is between the accessibility of food and its impact on health. Anthropomorphism – This is in terms of human values – how the lack or plenty of food affects human behaviors. Personification – Give descriptions of human qualities. Repetition – Will food security establishment be a recurring thing?

Compare and Contrast Other Research Papers

You need to compare and contrast previously done papers on the same. This will provide a greater overview of what to expect. While comparing, you will get some great ideas on what to expect and the kind of points that you can write.

You can choose a topic that deals with comparing or contrasting two elements. For example, how food security had an impact on health in the 20 th century as compared to the 21 st century.

Try to read any scholarly articles you can get on the same and gather all the information that seems relevant to your research.

Remember to familiarize yourself with the topic and know how a compare and contrast research topic is done. Think about the topic as two mini papers you are doing while comparing.

The Dangers of Not Narrowing Down A Research Topic

If you work with a general topic be assured that it will be hectic to do the research. However, if you narrow down the topic to minimal it will be easier to narrow down the topic.

Too Much Irrelevant Information. If you do not narrow down a research topic, you will have too much irrelevant information. This will make it hard to know the kind of information to include or omit. It is like going to a store with a wide variety of clothes that look fabulous. You will be caught in between and not know the best one to choose. Hence, narrowing down, makes it easier to choose the resources to use. Difficulty in Coming up With A Clear Framework. It can be hectic to come up with a clear framework to address a research problem. However, if you are working with a straight topic, you will be able to get a clear framework to do your research. A broad topic can make it hard to find the right method you can use for analysis. Lack of Specific Information That Fits. When the topic is too broad, you get too much irrelevant information or relevant information that will make it hard to decide what to put and what to leave out. Getting the specific information that fits can then take you a while.

Hence, broad topic examples can affect how well you will carry out your research. The topic should be educational for at most relevance. Yes, there might be enough information that doesn’t fit your study.

The Best Tips on How to Narrow Down a Research Topic

This is how you can narrow down a research topic through the aspects, methodology, time, place, and type. However, you can either use some of the tips or a combination of all. In the end, it depends on your preference.

Consider the Aspect

From what view would you want to research your topic?

For example in our food security topic, consider finding out, whether the impact on health is different in different age groups; the young and the old.

This will help make you focus on what’s relevant most. Get to know how the initial topic can be partitioned into smaller components for analysis. This will make it easier to focus on the specifics and get relevant information

Methodology to Use

What kind of research methodology are you planning to use in your research? This will help provide a better overview of the research that you should expect to do.

Is it going to be a qualitative or quantitative research paper? Narrow down to what kind of methods are most specific for that specific region. Collection of data is a major factor that you shouldn’t take for granted.

Narrowing it down to a specific area will help make the research much easier to do. However, if it is a global issue, you can consider choosing a larger area. Your scope of the study should cover all the relevant information to make your research paper a success.

For example, where specifically in America? How many states are you planning to study?

Relationship

Get to know your two major variables and see how they relate to each other. Designing a study around the correlation of different variables will put you in a better place.

For example food and health. Those are our major variables as we try to find out how best they relate. Other examples are: cause and effect, compare and contrast, currently or historically, male and female, and opinion and reason.

Thereby, this will make doing the research easier.

At what phase, century or time do you want your research to be based. Is it during the historical or current period? Studies need to be based on the current timeframes. For example, food security impact on health in Washington DC during the 21 st century . Having a specific timeframe makes it easy to perform the research. Remember that different periods have different circumstances and causes.

Don’t Know How To Narrow Your Research Topic?

Remember to narrow down a research topic, you need to first choose a general topic, giving a specific description of the topic, ask yourself questions on the topic, mention the specific aspects in the topic, narrow down the specifics of the topics, turn the topic into a sentence or statement, and get to know the specific place that you want to do the research. How to narrow a topic is easy if you follow all the relevant steps.

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Acknowledgments

The analysis in this report is based on a self-administered web survey conducted from Sept. 26 to Oct. 23, 2023, among a sample of 1,453 dyads, with each dyad (or pair) comprised of one U.S. teen ages 13 to 17 and one parent per teen. The margin of sampling error for the full sample of 1,453 teens is plus or minus 3.2 percentage points. The margin of sampling error for the full sample of 1,453 parents is plus or minus 3.2 percentage points. The survey was conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs in English and Spanish using KnowledgePanel, its nationally representative online research panel.

The research plan for this project was submitted to an external institutional review board (IRB), Advarra, which is an independent committee of experts that specializes in helping to protect the rights of research participants. The IRB thoroughly vetted this research before data collection began. Due to the risks associated with surveying minors, this research underwent a full board review and received approval (Approval ID Pro00073203).

KnowledgePanel members are recruited through probability sampling methods and include both those with internet access and those who did not have internet access at the time of their recruitment. KnowledgePanel provides internet access for those who do not have it and, if needed, a device to access the internet when they join the panel. KnowledgePanel’s recruitment process was originally based exclusively on a national random-digit dialing (RDD) sampling methodology. In 2009, Ipsos migrated to an address-based sampling (ABS) recruitment methodology via the U.S. Postal Service’s Delivery Sequence File (DSF). The Delivery Sequence File has been estimated to cover as much as 98% of the population, although some studies suggest that the coverage could be in the low 90% range. 4

Panelists were eligible for participation in this survey if they indicated on an earlier profile survey that they were the parent of a teen ages 13 to 17. A random sample of 3,981 eligible panel members were invited to participate in the study. Responding parents were screened and considered qualified for the study if they reconfirmed that they were the parent of at least one child ages 13 to 17 and granted permission for their teen who was chosen to participate in the study. In households with more than one eligible teen, parents were asked to think about one randomly selected teen, and that teen was instructed to complete the teen portion of the survey. A survey was considered complete if both the parent and selected teen completed their portions of the questionnaire, or if the parent did not qualify during the initial screening.

Of the sampled panelists, 1,763 (excluding break-offs) responded to the invitation and 1,453 qualified, completed the parent portion of the survey, and had their selected teen complete the teen portion of the survey, yielding a final stage completion rate of 44% and a qualification rate of 82%. The cumulative response rate accounting for nonresponse to the recruitment surveys and attrition is 2.2%. The break-off rate among those who logged on to the survey (regardless of whether they completed any items or qualified for the study) is 26.9%.

Upon completion, qualified respondents received a cash-equivalent incentive worth $10 for completing the survey. To encourage response from non-Hispanic Black panelists, the incentive was increased from $10 to $20 on Oct 5, 2023. The incentive was increased again on Oct. 10, from $20 to $40; then to $50 on Oct. 17; and to $75 on Oct. 20. Reminders and notifications of the change in incentive were sent for each increase.

All panelists received email invitations and any nonresponders received reminders, shown in the table. The field period was closed on Oct. 23, 2023.

A table showing Invitation and reminder dates

The analysis in this report was performed using separate weights for parents and teens. The parent weight was created in a multistep process that begins with a base design weight for the parent, which is computed to reflect their probability of selection for recruitment into the KnowledgePanel. These selection probabilities were then adjusted to account for the probability of selection for this survey, which included oversamples of non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic parents. Next, an iterative technique was used to align the parent design weights to population benchmarks for parents of teens ages 13 to 17 on the dimensions identified in the accompanying table, to account for any differential nonresponse that may have occurred.

To create the teen weight, an adjustment factor was applied to the final parent weight to reflect the selection of one teen per household. Finally, the teen weights were further raked to match the demographic distribution for teens ages 13 to 17 who live with parents. The teen weights were adjusted on the same teen dimensions as parent dimensions with the exception of teen education, which was not used in the teen weighting.

Sampling errors and tests of statistical significance take into account the effect of weighting. Interviews were conducted in both English and Spanish.

In addition to sampling error, one should bear in mind that question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of opinion polls.

The following table shows the unweighted sample sizes and the error attributable to sampling that would be expected at the 95% level of confidence for different groups in the survey:

A table showing the unweighted sample sizes and the error attributable to sampling

Sample sizes and sampling errors for subgroups are available upon request.

Dispositions and response rates

The tables below display dispositions used in the calculation of completion, qualification and cumulative response rates. 5

AAPOR Task Force on Address-based Sampling. 2016. “AAPOR Report: Address-based Sampling.” ↩
For more information on this method of calculating response rates, refer to: Callegaro, Mario, and Charles DiSogra. 2008. “Computing response metrics for online panels.” Public Opinion Quarterly. ↩

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Guides: Research Tips and Tricks: Narrowing Your Topic Tips
Ways To Narrow Your Topic. Here are some strategies to help narrow your topic: Aspect -- choose one lens through which to view the research problem, or look at just one facet of it. e.g., rather than studying the role of food in South Asian religious rituals, explore the role of food in Hindu ceremonies or the role of one particular type of ...
Narrowing a Topic Idea
Strategies for Narrowing the Research Topic. A common challenge when beginning to write a research paper is determining how and in what ways to narrow down your topic. Even if your professor gives you a specific topic to study, it will almost never be so specific that you won't have to narrow it down at least to some degree [besides, it is ...
Narrowing a Topic and Developing a Research Question
Begin the research and writing process using the following tips: Research your question: Now that you have a research question, you can begin exploring possible answers to it. Your research question allows you to begin researching in a clear direction. Create a thesis statement: Once you have a clear understanding of your research question and ...
How to Narrow Down a Research Topic
Step 3: Narrowing focus. Now comes the pivotal step of narrowing research topic. One effective approach is to zoom in on a particular aspect or dimension of your research questions. For example, if your initial topic is "Climate Change," you could narrow it down to "The Impact of Climate Change on Coastal Ecosystems.".
2. Narrowing a Topic
Narrowing a Topic - Choosing & Using Sources: A Guide to Academic Research. 1-Research Questions. 2. Narrowing a Topic. For many students, having to start with a research question is the biggest difference between how they did research in high school and how they are required to carry out their college research projects.
Narrowing a Topic
1. Narrowing a Topic. Defining your research question is a process of working from the outside in: you start with the world of all possible topics (or your assigned topic) and narrow down until you have focused your interest enough to be able to state precisely what you want to find out, instead of only what you want to "write about.".
Narrowing a Topic
Process of Narrowing a Topic. Visualize narrowing a topic as starting with all possible topics and choosing narrower and narrower subsets until you have a specific enough topic to form a research question. All Possible Topics - You'll need to narrow your topic to do research effectively. Without specific areas of focus, it will be hard to ...
PDF Narrowing a Topic and Developing a Research Question
Narrowing a Topic and Developing a Research Question Reference Sources Reference sources are a great place to begin your research. They provide: • a way to identify potential research topics. • a starting point to gather information on your topic. • an introduction to major works and key issues related to your topic.
5.3: Narrowing a Topic
5.3: Narrowing a Topic. Page ID. Ohio State University Libraries. Process of Narrowing a Topic. Visualize narrowing a topic as starting with all possible topics and choosing narrower and narrower subsets until you have a specific enough topic to form a research question. All Possible Topics - You'll need to narrow your topic to do research ...
Brainstorming Strategy: Narrowing a Topic
Brainstorming is the process by which ideas are produced using techniques like concept mapping, free-writing, etc. Choosing a topic can be a difficult process when starting an assignment or writing a paper, and brainstorming can be used to choose a topic or narrow down a broad topic.Narrowing your topic is an important step in the research process. A broad, general topic makes it difficult to ...
Narrowing a Topic
Narrowing a Topic. If your topic is too broad or vague you will find too much information and will need to narrow the focus. Example: I'm thinking of doing a paper on "fashion." This topic could develop in many different ways.
Narrowing Your Research Topic
Topic narrowed by initial exploration: This results from conducting preliminary research on your assigned topic (s). During this process, you will learn more about the topics you are considering. From there, you can determine if the topic is still of interest. Topic narrowed to research question (s): From the information you have learned in ...
Narrowing a Topic
1. Narrowing a Topic. Defining your research question is a process of working from the outside in: you start with the world of all possible topics (or your assigned topic) and narrow down until you have focused your interest enough to be able to state precisely what you want to find out, instead of only what you want to "write about.".
Narrowing a Topic
1. Narrowing a Topic. Defining your research question is a process of working from the outside in: you start with the world of all possible topics (or your assigned topic) and narrow down until you've focused your interest enough to be able to state precisely what you want to find out, instead of only what you want to "write about.".
How To Narrow Down A Research Topic
2. Give specific description of the topic area. Example: turnover in the nursing industry. 3. Mention an aspect of the specific topic: Example: factors that affect turnover among registered nurses. To narrow down a topic's focus, follow these steps: 4. Note down extra specifics about the topic.
Narrowing a Topic
The first part is research to figure out your research question. The second part is to investigate possible answers to that question. For instance, maybe your assignment is to develop a poster about "The Internet" for a writing course. The instructor expects you to narrow that topic to something you are interested in and that is related to ...
Narrowing Your Research Topic
Narrowing a research topic is moving from a general topic, like global warming, to a tighter research focus, such as helping the environment by improving travel modes (example below). However, you can't just forget about the big picture—how your argument/claim fits into the bigger discussion including connections to other viewpoints on your ...
How do I narrow down my research topic?
Below are some common ways you can narrow down a research topic, or get started by using our Brainstorming Topics & Search Terms tutorial . By demographic characteristics. Narrow it down by age group, occupation, ethnic group, gender, etc. e.g. challenges faced by international college graduates entering the workforce. By relevant issues.
LibGuides: Need a Topic?: Form a Research Position
Try narrowing down your topic... #1 Blank Worksheet. Complete the attached Topic Development / Pre-Search Worksheet. #2 Blank Worksheet (Long Version) Complete the attached Research Exploration Form. #2 Fracking Example (Long Version - with additional Social Justice questions)
Stepwise Guide on How to Narrow a Research Topic with Examples
An example: Explain why employers prefer few college graduates during the employment process. 5. Using relevant issues to narrow down a topic. The key element here is to determine the key aspects of the topic. You can base the key elements on your opinion, then turn it into a research topic or question.
Easy-To-Use Guide on How To Narrow Down a Research Topic
Apply the answers to the 5W'ss: When you consider who, what, when, why, and where, you will be able to narrow it down to a specific topic. For instance, when you are talking about exam cheating, look at (who, why) students cheat in exams or the effects of students cheating in exams. By following the expert guidelines above, you will not try ...
How to Narrow Down a Research Topic: Ideas and Solutions
In some cases, the supervisors can narrow down on the type of research that you can do. Thereby, making it easier for you to choose a topic. Check The Resources Available - It depends on the number of resources you have. It wouldn't be right to do a topic that will require you to travel a long distance to go collect your data.
Methodology
The analysis in this report is based on a self-administered web survey conducted from Sept. 26 to Oct. 23, 2023, among a sample of 1,453 dyads, with each dyad (or pair) comprised of one U.S. teen ages 13 to 17 and one parent per teen.