Handumanan National High School

Senior High School Department

Practical Research 1
Lecture Note
Quarter 3
Lesson 5 Week 5

Unit III: Identifying the Inquiry and Stating the Problem

LESSON 5 Subject Matter of the Inquiry or Research

Intended Learning Outcomes

After this lesson, you should be able to:
1. widen your vocabulary;
2. communicate with one another using newly learned words;
3. distinguish a good research topic from a bad one;
4. characterize a researchable topic;
5. narrow down a general topic into a smaller one; and
6. choose a good research topic.

Lesson Proper

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE INQUIRY OR RESEARCH

You begin your research work with a problem; that is, having a problem or topic to work on.
Mulling over a topic for your research work drives you to perform HOTS or higher-order thinking
strategies of inferential, critical, integrative, and creative thinking in finalizing your mind on one topic
among several choices. A topic is researchable if the knowledge and information about it are supported
by evidence that is observable, factual, and logical. Here are some pointers you have to keep in mind in
selecting a research topic (Babbie 2013):
Guidelines in Choosing a Research Topic
1. Interest in the subject matter
Your interest in a topic may be caused by your rich background knowledge about it and by its
novelty; meaning, its unfamiliarity to you. Being curious about a subject, like a conundrum or a puzzle,
makes you determined to unravel the mystery or intriguing thing behind it. Your real interest in a subject
pushes you to research, investigate, or inquire about it with full motivation, enthusiasm, and energy.
2. Availability of information
Collecting a lot of information as evidence to support your claims about your subject matter
from varied forms of literature like books, journals, and newspapers, among others, is a part and parcel
of any research work. Hence, in choosing a research topic, visit your library to check the availability of
reading materials on your chosen topic. Included in your investigation of the availability of reading
materials are questions on how updated and authoritative the materials are. Let these questions linger
as you tour the library: What are the copyright dates of the materials? How old or new are they? How
expert or qualified the writers are in coming out with such kind of reading materials about your topic?
 Handumanan National High School
Senior High School Department

3. Timeliness and relevance of the topic

The topic is relevant if it yields results that are instrumental in societal improvement. It is timely
if it is related to the present. For instance, unless it is a pure or historical research, a research on the ins
and outs of people’s revolutionary acts will prosper more if it tackles the contemporary revolutionary
actions rather than those in the ancient time.
4. Limitations on the subject
This makes you link your choosing with course requirements. For example, to make you
complete the requirements, your teacher instructs you to submit a paper that will apply the key
principles you learned in business, psychology, education, and so on. In this case, you have no freedom
to choose your topic based on your interest, but has to decide on one topic to finish your course.
5. Personal resources
Before sticking fully to your final choice, assess your research abilities in terms of your financial
standing, health condition, mental capacity, needed facilities, and time allotment to enable you to
complete your research. Imagine yourself pouring much time and effort into its initial stage, only to find
out later that you are unable to complete it because of your failure to raise the amount needed for
questionnaire printing and interview trips. (Barbour 2014)
Research Topics to be Avoided
1. Controversial topics. These are topics that depend greatly on the writer’s opinion, which may tend to
be biased or prejudicial. Facts cannot support topics like these.
For example, personal information and personal stories, topics with a lack of approachable information,
too narrow topics, too broad topics and controversial/political topics, same-sex marriage, religion/race,
etc.
2. Highly technical subjects. For a beginner, researching on topics that require an advanced study,
technical knowledge, and vast experience is a very difficult task.
In general, do not pick any technical topics. Only those who have technical skills can do research in
technical areas. If you believe you have such technical skills in some area, please consult with your
teacher or research adviser.
3. Hard-to-investigate subjects. A subject is hard to investigate if there are no available reading materials
about it and if such materials are not up-to-date.
Don't pick a topic where you obviously can't gain access to the evidence, or to the object to be studied.
This point is so important that you go over it again in the section called "the X-rule" below.
For example: Don't plan on doing research on the African elephant, unless you can go to Africa to study
them (or have good access to them in a zoo, for example).
 Handumanan National High School
Senior High School Department

4. Too broad subjects. Topics that are too broad will prevent you from giving a concentrated or an in-
depth analysis of the subject matter of the paper. The remedy to this is to narrow or limit the topic to a
smaller one.
You may have found too many or too few results to meet your information needs or assignment
requirements. For example, a topic like "race horses" will be too broad and return many results and
potential areas for research.
5. Too narrow subjects. These subjects are so limited or specific that an extensive or thorough searching
or reading for information about these is necessary.
6. Vague subjects. Choosing topics like these will prevent you from having a clear focus on your paper.
For instance, titles beginning with indefinite adjectives such as several, many, some, etc., as in “Some
Remarkable Traits of a Filipino” or “Several People’s Comments on the RH Law,” are vague enough to
decrease the readers’ interests and curiosity.
Example: Law, Crime and Punishment, Voter Participation and Immigration, Memory and Learning.

Sources of Research Topics

This time, you already have ideas on some factors that affect your process of choosing a researchable
topic. It is also necessary for you to know where a good research topic may come from. Knowing some
sources of probable research topics could hasten your choosing; thereby, freeing you from a prolonged
time of pondering over a problem of knowing which problem is good for you to research on. The
following can help you generate ideas about a good research topic. (Silverman 2013)
1. Mass media communication – press (newspapers, ads, TV, radio, films, etc.)
2. Books, Internet, peer-reviewed journals, government publications
3. Professional periodicals like College English Language Teaching Forum, English Forum, The Economist,
Academia, Business Circle, Law Review, etc.
4. General periodicals such as Readers’ Digest, Women’s Magazine, Panorama
Magazine, Time Magazine, World Mission Magazine, etc.
5. Previous reading assignments in your other subjects
6. Work experience – clues to a researchable topic from full-time or part-time
jobs, OJT (on-the-job training) experience, fieldwork, etc.
 Handumanan National High School
Senior High School Department

Assignment: