What are the main approaches to choose a topic? Mention some criteria for topic selection

Background

A key step before embarking on a scholarly research would be choosing the right topic. The topic you choose would be a decisive factor in determining the time that you would require to complete your research. For a large majority of students, topic selection is a task that is nothing short of a nightmare, mainly because of the complexity associated with it. For instance, researchers need to ask themselves whether the chosen topic is unique, whether it is valid for the course being pursued. If by chance, the topic you chose is not appropriate or does not offer value to the domain, the whole endeavour is wasted. Therefore, it is of utmost significance that you are thorough and meticulous while choosing the research topic for your dissertation. One of the key points to be kept in mind while choosing a research topic is that you consider the prerequisites of your academic / research programme. It would be instrumental in deciding the level at which an investigation would require to be carried out. Certain projects might have stringent norms as compared to others. Even after the requirements are taken into consideration, it is not always easy to choose an appropriate research topic for your dissertation or thesis. However, we have outlined certain pointers that would be helpful to you during topic selection.

Steps to Choose the Right Topic

Identifying Areas of Interest

The starting point during topic selection could be deliberating about your areas of interests within the subject of your examination. It would be a smart move to choose a domain that you are familiar or well-versed with. This will place you in familiar environment.

Read a Lot

Though you might be a master of your domain, it might not hurt you to engage in further reading. You can read books or research papers from your library or you could find appropriate reading materials (books, research papers) from leading online databases. A point of significance here would be that if you have limited resources or are hard-pressed for time to search for relevant papers, you might also go through the reference lists of the few papers you have found. This will help you to find other similar articles with ease. While reading, you can note down key points from the papers you find.

Narrowing the Field

After reviewing a few papers, and noting down key points, you should now focus on narrowing down your research area. Though the process can be cumbersome and time-consuming, it is necessary that your theme is quite explicit. Your focus should be on identifying a specific topic that has not been extensively researched in the past, or a topic that is being largely discussed within academic circles or any topic that is currently in vogue. In the rare event that you select a topic that has been covered extensively through previous research, it would be challenging to establish its relevance.

Determine the Type of Investigation

Investigations can be of different kinds. Therefore, it would be wise if you determine in advance the research approach that you want to adopt for your research. Will your focus would be mainly on;

• Gathering distinct information
• Evaluating current information
• Interpreting social articles
• Conducting a comparison of insightful methodologies

There are several papers that combine more than one of the above elements. At times, the kind of examination would be clearly evident. For instance, if your subject involves examination of post-war Irish verses, then presumably, you would be interpreting sonnets. A key concern here would be that collecting distinct information would require time. In case you do not have much time to spare, it would better serve your purpose to dissect prevalent information from auxiliary and essential sources.

Deciding Significance

Your subject would no doubt be fascinating to you, however, it is essential to ascertain that it is socially or scholastically applicable. Significance from a scholastic point of view would imply that an investigation can bridge a gap in information or offer an insightful input within your domain. Feasibility of the relevance would indicate that your investigation could be applied to take care of major issues or enhance natural cycles. An approach that is quite straightforward would be to choose a topic that is linked to your current subject of dissertation or discussions, either from a public perspective or anywhere as per your research requirement. Social significance could imply that your investigation could drive the general understanding about society and direct social change. It is necessary to clearly express your thoughts while projecting your research topic.

Ensure Achievability

Before you zero in on the right topic, think of how lengthy your dissertation is going to be, the time you would require for completion and the items of common sense that directs the investigation. Would you have ample opportunity to review all relevant scholarly work on the topic? In case the number of data exceeds the volume that you can handle, it would help to narrow down your search significantly. On the whole, your topic should be one which you know you will be able to achieve.

Topic Endorsement

Before you delve into the actual research process, you would be required to briefly present your topic following which a guide/supervisor will be allocated to you. It would be apt if you discuss your ideas with your supervisor before you start the research writing process. You need to justify why you have chosen the topic, what gaps exist in the area that warrants investigation and most importantly, how the selected research topic would make a contribution to your subject of interest. If the supervisor has a different idea, it would be helpful to incorporate his thoughts too to further narrow down or tweak your research topic.

Conclusion

Selecting a research topic is a time-consuming and taxing task. Therefore, thorough research within your subject domain is advisable to help you to frame the right topic that would further your research goals.