In many ways, the planning phase of the research process is the most important. The ground work you do here will set the stage for the rest of the project. Take your time as you think through your topic and how researchers and other authors might talk about and explore your subject area.
Ask yourself:
Start a concept map to help you think about potential topics and subtopics related to your course. Keep track of your ideas in a notebook.
Example:
Addiction to smoking
What do you want to know about your topic? Open-ended questions help you focus your research. Try questions like:
Consider narrowing your question by one of these criteria:
Watch What makes a good research topic? (3:28).
Example:
What are the risk factors for addiction to smoking among teenagers?
Your search will be based on the keywords you choose. Keywords describe the main concepts you are looking for. The keywords from our example are:
Consider alternative or related keywords that authors writing about your topic might use:
Instead of: |
Authors might use: |
---|---|
risk factors |
peer pressure, culture, genetics (ie. examples of "risk factors") |
smoking |
cigarettes, vaping, tobacco |
teenagers |
adolescents, youth |
Use a combination of these keywords to search your topic.
Example:
(smoking OR vaping) AND (adolescent OR youth OR teen) AND "risk factors"
Use these tools to get you started on defining your topic and choosing your keywords.
Chat with Us if you have any questions about planning your research.