Answered By: Woodruff Library ReferenceLast Updated: Jan 04, 2022 Views: 486916How do you decide what to write about when confronted with a research paper? You want a focused topic! Here are some things to
consider: - Make sure your topic meets the assignment requirements. Ask your professor for feedback if you are unsure.
- Choose a topic that is interesting to you. It may seem obvious, but this will make the research process more fun and engaging for you.
- Consider the scope of your topic. If your topic is too broad it may be hard to find information that is focused and relevant; if your topic is too narrow it may be
hard to find any information at all.
Here's one strategy for developing a research topic once you have a broad topic in mind: - Background research will
help you develop your topic and hone or change it in more appropriate ways. Knowing more about your topic's background can only help you develop a more effective topic, and therefore, research paper.
- Brainstorm concepts. Once you think of a broad topic that interests you, try to brainstorm all of the words or concepts you can that might be related to that topic (and write them down!). For example, if your topic is "polar bears," you might think
of the following words and topics in association: ice, cubs, pollution, hunting, diet, climate change, and environmental icon.
- Develop a research question. Once you have come up with a broad topic and done some background research, you may want to develop a research question, or a question you're going to answer in your paper by doing more, in-depth research.
- What's your general
approach to the topic? Think about some general approaches that may help you further develop your topic: use a historical angle by focusing on a particular time period; a geographical angle, focusing on a particular part of the world; or a sociological angle, focusing on a particular group of people.
- Start doing some exploratory, in-depth research. As you do more in-depth research, like looking for scholarly articles, books, and other sources to include in
your paper, you can and probably will modify or refine your topic based on what you find.
- Research is a dynamic process. Don't be afraid to discover new things and modify or refine your topic.
The topic development process will help you to develop your thesis, which is essentially your proposed answer to your research question. You will then be ready to use the sources you've found, and find more sources in order to support that thesis, or to
answer your research question. Here's an example of how the topic development process above can lead you to a thesis: Resources that can help you develop your topic: - Your instructor, course readings, class notes, Wikipedia, and Google can all be helpful in terms of getting ideas for broad topics.
- A Research Guide for a particular subject created by a subject librarianis great for helping you choose where to begin your research. These online guides will identify encyclopedias, books, databases, and other materials to help you get started with research. You can also ask a librarian at the Library Service Desk.
- Library resources like
Credo Reference Unlimited, Gale Virtual Reference Library, CQ Researcher and subject-specific encyclopedias can help you come up with topic ideas because they provide great overviews and introductions to topics. You can find links to these kinds of resources in the Research Guides mentioned above. These will probably not be scholarly sources you can use in your paper, but they may lead you to more in-depth, scholarly resources that you will want to use in your paper.
Check out this video from NCSU Libraries:
Thanks go to the
Portland State University Library for sharing their Library DIY idea with us!
Why is the Researcher feature in Word useful for creating research papers?
The Researcher feature is a service that helps you find and incorporate credible sources and content to your Word documents. The feature uses Microsoft's Bing Knowledge Graph to get the desired information online and place it directly into your document.
Where do I find research in Word?
Open Researcher in Microsoft Word
To use the Researcher tool, open the “References” tab of your Word document. Click “Researcher” from the “Research” section of the ribbon. When the pane opens on the right, type a term into the Search box and you're on your way!
How do I write a research paper in Word?
On the Reference tab, in the Reference group, choose Researcher. In the search box, type a keyword for the topic you are researching and press Enter. The Results pane shows a list of sources you can use in your document. Choose a topic in the Results pane to explore in detail.
What is the best Microsoft application to create a research paper?
Write great papers with Microsoft Word.
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