How to choose a research topic

What makes a research topic

a really good topic?

 A topic that strongly interests you,

matters to you, and then figure out why it
matters to you.
 Creative and exciting
 Appropriate
 Manageable: not too broad

(scope and length of your paper)

How to discover your research topic?
 Use brainstorming (mind maps, lists, etc.)
 Start researching: is there enough information available

from reliable sources?

 Discuss your ideas with your teachers, colleagues to see

if your topic is realistic

 Related to your area of studies; valuable for your degree

 English/ American literature

 British and American Culture and Civilization
 film studies
 pop culture
 video games studies
Bad news!

 finding or discovering a knowledge gap

is quite difficult  a lot of critical reading
 existing knowledge (what we know about

the topic, summarizing existing

knowledge)/ new knowledge (fill in the
gaps in our knowledge)
 not enough time? Find the topic, do the

research, write the paper, format the

citation
 
Good news!

 find disagreement – give a different

answer to the same research topic (keeps
the research gap open)
  background reading / information –

directions you want to explore

 don’t need to have a fantastic idea at first,

it will develop into something more

significant
 Literature (too broad!)
↓
Modernist literature (restricted topic)
↓
American modernist literature (narrow topic)
↓
William Faulkner and his experimental style (focused
topic):
Faulkner’s narrators in The Sound and the Fury
 Process of discovery observations
 "It's too cold out there." Versh said. "You dont want to
go outdoors."
"What is it now." Mother said.
"He want to go out doors." Versh said.
"Let him go." Uncle Maury said.
 "It's too cold." Mother said. "He'd better stay in.
Benjamin. Stop that, now."
 "It wont hurt him." Uncle Maury said.
  "You, Benjamin." Mother said. "If you don’t be
good, you'll have to go to the kitchen."
  "Mammy say keep him out the kitchen today." Versh
said. "She say she got all that cooking to get done.”
The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner (1929)
 Lack of proper punctuation, faulty grammar ↔
the narrator’s state of mind

 Our chosen topic of research becomes

debatable/ intriguing/ interesting

 What effect does Faulkner’s intentional absence

and suspension of punctuation have on his
narrator’s thinking and how does it affect the
narrative style in The Sound and the Fury?
Research topics
 Cinema (broad topic)

 European Cinema (restricted topic)

 Eastern European Cinema (narrow topic)

 Focused topics:
 
 How Eastern European cinema reflected the social and economic
change on screen after 1989

 How Eastern European cinema was reinvented in the late 20th c

RESEARCH Topics: strong or weak?
 The effects of digital media on art
 Don Quixote and his romantic-idealist attitude to life
 George Orwell’s life and work
 The loss of identity in W. Golding’s Lord of the Flies
 How the contrast between light and darkness affects the
reader in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
 Feminist ideas in Virginia Woolf' s novels
 Irony and anxiety in George Orwell's 1984
 Differences between social phobia and social anxiety
 Nature in Henry David Thoreau’s Walden or Life in the
Woods
 The effects of the Vietnam war on the war veterans