{"id":4630,"date":"2018-10-01T21:45:38","date_gmt":"2018-10-01T21:45:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/library.csun.edu\/blogs\/cited\/?p=4630"},"modified":"2018-10-01T21:45:38","modified_gmt":"2018-10-01T21:45:38","slug":"how-to-choose-a-topic-for-your-research-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.csun.edu\/blogs\/cited\/2018\/10\/01\/how-to-choose-a-topic-for-your-research-paper\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Choose a Topic for Your Research Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure id=\"attachment_4633\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4633\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4633 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/library.csun.edu\/blogs\/cited\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/10\/Student_with_computer-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Student on laptop computer\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/library.csun.edu\/blogs\/cited\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/10\/Student_with_computer-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/library.csun.edu\/blogs\/cited\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/10\/Student_with_computer-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/library.csun.edu\/blogs\/cited\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/10\/Student_with_computer-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4633\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">By Courtcourtwest [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0)], from Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>Hey Matadors! It\u2019s the time of year you may be assigned a research paper or presentation. So let\u2019s talk about how you can easily choose a topic for such an assignment. If you are able to select your topic, that\u2019s great, because you can choose something of interest to you. However, even if you are able to select your own topic, it sometimes can be a challenge to come up with a topic that is manageable for the length of your specific paper or project.<\/p>\n<p>When deciding upon a particular topic consider that manageable topics are not going to be too broad or too narrow. Manageable topics generally have two to three concepts. Examples of manageable topics include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Do children sent to\u00a0preschool start kindergarten with more highly developed language skills?<\/li>\n<li>What impact has deregulation had on commercial airline safety?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>On the other hand, topics with one concept are generally too broad. Examples of topics that are too broad are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>global warming<\/li>\n<li>body image<\/li>\n<li>food safety<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When a topic idea is too broad, common\u00a0ways to break down the idea\u00a0include: place, time period, gender, age group, or ethnic group. A more manageable topic associated with the broad topic of global warming could be: Does global warming impact the drought in California?<\/p>\n<p>Then there are instances when topics can be too narrow. Topics\u00a0with more than three concepts are usually too narrow. Examples of these could be:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What are the 14 different disease-causing genes that were discovered in 2010?<\/li>\n<li>Are genetically altered soybeans grown in Iowa safe for human or animal use?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In these instances, using less specificity will be necessary in order to develop a more manageable research topic.\u00a0For more information about developing and choosing a research topic see our <a href=\"https:\/\/libguides.csun.edu\/research-strategies\">Research Strategies<\/a> pages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hey Matadors! It\u2019s the time of year you may be assigned a research paper or presentation. So let\u2019s talk about how you can easily choose&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/library.csun.edu\/blogs\/cited\/2018\/10\/01\/how-to-choose-a-topic-for-your-research-paper\/\">Read more<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">How to Choose a Topic for Your Research Paper<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":4638,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[341,175],"class_list":["post-4630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-how-to-select-a-topic","tag-research","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.csun.edu\/blogs\/cited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.csun.edu\/blogs\/cited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.csun.edu\/blogs\/cited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.csun.edu\/blogs\/cited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.csun.edu\/blogs\/cited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4630"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/library.csun.edu\/blogs\/cited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4636,"href":"https:\/\/library.csun.edu\/blogs\/cited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4630\/revisions\/4636"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.csun.edu\/blogs\/cited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.csun.edu\/blogs\/cited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.csun.edu\/blogs\/cited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.csun.edu\/blogs\/cited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}