{"id":5169,"date":"2019-10-28T22:40:57","date_gmt":"2019-10-28T22:40:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.csun.edu\/blogs\/cited\/?p=5169"},"modified":"2019-10-28T22:40:57","modified_gmt":"2019-10-28T22:40:57","slug":"how-to-select-a-research-topic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.csun.edu\/blogs\/cited\/2019\/10\/28\/how-to-select-a-research-topic\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Select a Research Topic"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_5172\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5172\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-5172 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/library.csun.edu\/blogs\/cited\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/10\/Selecting-a-Topic-300x274.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"274\" srcset=\"https:\/\/library.csun.edu\/blogs\/cited\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/10\/Selecting-a-Topic-300x274.jpg 300w, https:\/\/library.csun.edu\/blogs\/cited\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/10\/Selecting-a-Topic.jpg 639w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5172\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sccpre.cat\/show\/JxmoRo_teamwork-clipart-liberalism-research-topic-clipart\/\">Teamwork Clipart Liberalism &#8211; Research Topic<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<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 a topic. The great thing about choosing your own topic for an assignment is that you can choose something that interests you. However, 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><span style=\"float: none; background-color: transparent; color: #666666; cursor: text; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 300; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;\">In these instances, using less specificity will be necessary in order to develop a more manageable research topic. Choosing a topic can take some time. Browsing topics in the databases <a href=\"https:\/\/go.gale.com\/ps\/start.do?p=OVIC&amp;u=csunorthridge\">Opposing Viewpoints in Context<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/library.cqpress.com\/cqresearcher\/\">CQ Researcher<\/a> also may be useful in helping you decide on a manageable topic. For additional information about developing and choosing a research topic please see our <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/libguides.csun.edu\/research-strategies\">Research Strategies<\/a><span style=\"float: none; background-color: transparent; color: #666666; cursor: text; font-family: 'Open Sans',sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 300; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;\"> pages.<\/span><\/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\/2019\/10\/28\/how-to-select-a-research-topic\/\">Read more<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">How To Select a Research Topic<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":5178,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[377,219],"class_list":["post-5169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-research-topic","tag-topics","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.csun.edu\/blogs\/cited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5169","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=5169"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/library.csun.edu\/blogs\/cited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5179,"href":"https:\/\/library.csun.edu\/blogs\/cited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5169\/revisions\/5179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.csun.edu\/blogs\/cited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.csun.edu\/blogs\/cited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.csun.edu\/blogs\/cited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.csun.edu\/blogs\/cited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}