Workshops: 1. Find the Right Topic

This workshop is self-paced, with an accompanying quiz linked at the bottom of the page. You should watch the entire video below as well as read through the rest of the material to get a full understanding of the strategies and concepts discussed. You will likely not be able to pass the quiz without doing so.

After submitting your answers you'll see a Certificate of Completion page. If an instructor has asked you to take and submit your quiz results to them, you can email it, print it out or take a picture of that Certificate page to do so.

For any questions or issues with this content, please send an email with the details of your question to: librarian@sunyempire.edu

Questions to consider as you work your way through this section:

• How do university-level research papers usually differ from traditional high school papers?
• What are some strategies I can use to take a broad starting topic and turn it into a manageable research question?
• Is there a possible gap between the words and phrases I use to describe the main concepts of my topic and those experts use? How can I bridge that gap?
• If you already have a view or opinion on the topic (it's natural to have one), be conscious about this and try to minimize your natural biases and blind spots when it comes to how you seek out, select and interpret information.
• What is background reading? How can I get a quick overview, history, and list of possible sub-topics and keywords related to my topic?

The Dreaded Research Assignment!

What is an academic-level research assignment? In short, it's a written or other type of assignment where you're tasked with investigating a chosen topic, and asking increasingly narrower questions and gathering evidence to try to get at possible answers about that topic. A research assignments' purpose is multifold, but most are designed to get you to interact with, think deeply about, and add your own ideas on top of the existing literature on a specific topic. In almost any profession, this is the kind of investigative, critical-thinking, problem-solving skills employers expect from new hires. 

Step One: Get Started

If you're anxious about completing a research assignment, you're not alone! Nearly every student struggles with this type of assignment at some time or another in their academic career. One of the first stumbling blocks you may encounter is trying to figure out what to do research on. Additionally, you usually won't know enough about the field of study or it's scholarly vocabulary yet to be able to ask the right questions in order to determine a suitably manageable and narrow topic. This is ok and expected. Start with a broad topic of interest, and then using the strategies below, explore possible sub-topics within that starting topic that might be used as a focus point for your paper. Here are a couple of things to get you started on crafting a research topic:

1. Read the assignment instructions carefully. Sometimes you may even want to read it several times. Ensure that whatever topic you explore, it conforms to the requirements of the assignment. If something is unclear in the instructions, as your instructor about it.
2. What are you curious about? Consult your textbook (for example, look at the table of contents), readings, lectures, and notes. What topic or issue interests you within the context of the course or assignment?  If you can find something that draws out your natural curiosity, your output will be stronger for it.
3. Watch this brief video: Picking your Topic is Research!
4. If you're completely at a loss for a starting topic idea, you can try something like ChatGPT to help generate some possible ideas. To be absolutely clear, use of artificial intelligence (A.I.) tools like ChatGPT should always be done with extreme caution, and using them as a substitute for your own course work, the same as using a paper mill, is academic dishonesty and can have serious consequences. However, these tools can be an effective way to simply generate some possible starting topic ideas. Here's how: on the ChatGPT site, try a question prompt like this: Suggest some potential topics on workplace diversity for an academic paper or Suggest some potential topics within the field of nursing related to patient safety. Submitting something like that based around the assignment or course will generate a list of topic ideas. Again, don't use such A.I. suggestions verbatim; instead use them as a jumping off point to explore a topic a little more using the next steps below.

Step Two: Background Reading

Next, you need to bridge the gap between your starting topic, and a specific question you will address in your paper. The first step is to understand a little about the scope and history of the topic and the terminology (the names of people, events, theories, laws) surrounding it. The most effective way to do this is through some brief background reading. You can do this quickly and efficiently by seeing if there is an entry related to your topic on Wikipedia or a specialized encyclopedia.

Example: Starting topic: the opioid crisis => Wikipedia entries: Opioid Epidemic in the United States, Opioid Use Disorder

From those entries, scan the Contents listed on the left side, explore any that look interesting, and start building up a list of terminology (e.g., Opioid Epidemic, fentanyl, Controlled Substances Act, etc.) to both help you think about narrower aspects and find useful keywords to search the scholarly literature a little later in the research process.

Step Three: Brainstorm and Narrow

As you're doing background reading, take notes and also keep a list of possible sub-topics and narrower questions that might make a good focus for your paper. You can think about this as a free form brainstorming exercise where you're exploring possible paths to investigate. There are no right or wrong questions or answers. Ask yourself questions related to the topic, starting with the 5 Ws: why, who, where, when, and what (or how). Then, as you are doing the background reading, try to answer some of your questions with possible answers. Keep in mind you don't have to have answers to these questions at this point - this is an exercise to explore possibilities so that you can then make some narrowing choices as needed (and/or identify possible issues to address in the paper). Here's an example:

• Broad starting topic: cyberbullying
• Why is this topic important? Why do bullies engage in this?
• Who is involved in the issue? Try to name groups of people involved in this issue (e.g., students, teachers, administrators, parents, law enforcement, and/or are age groups, school level, gender, socio-economic status, etc, within those groupings important?). 
• Where geographically are you focusing on? This could be a specific country, region, state, community, school district, or other geographic delimiter, or a comparison between two or more of them.
• When in time are you focusing on the topic? Are you looking at the entire history of cyberbullying, a specific date range or just as it exists now? 
• What are the specific aspect(s) of the topic you might want to focus on? This is usually the most open-ended, so try to list out possible sub-topics. Examples: methods used by bullies, outcomes and coping mechanisms for victims (behavioral, educational, etc.), public perceptions or coverage in the media, prevention programs, policies and procedures, etc. You should consider if focusing on one or more of the sub-topics you identify would be useful. Look through your background readings for ideas.

Step Four: Create the Research Question

Finally, after you make some choices as to focus, you want to format your chosen topic into a question. This will help you both better identify those sources you find that will help you answer the question, but also keep your writing focused on the question. It is sometimes easy to wander from issue to issue, source to source, if you don't have the research question to help focus your writing. Everything you write and every source you cite should be in service to answering your research question. To help with this transformation, read this brief tutorial, Developing a Research Question, or for more details, view this video tutorial: Develop a Strong Research Question.

For some hands-on practice using these strategies, try this:

• Use an upcoming research assignment (or this example broad topic: autism - and pretend you have been given the task of finding a topic within that and writing a 5 page research paper on it) for one of your courses and do the following:
  • Come up with a broad possible starting topic (scan through your textbook and course for ideas).
  • See if you can find a relevant entry in Wikipedia on your topic. Scan over the Contents section of the entry for possible sub-topics. Write those down on your document.
  • Start a list of useful vocabulary (names of people, events, or theories/models/laws/policies) related to the topic.
  • Do some free-form brainstorming on possible sub-topics that interest you and that might make a good paper.
  • Put one or more possible narrower topic ideas into writing.
  • Choose one and put that into the form of a question.

If you didn't explore these links in the content above, you should do so now - they go over material critical to the research topic formation process.

• Quiz for Library Workshop 1: Find the Right Topic (make sure you review the materials above before taking the quiz). 
• After you complete the quiz, you'll see a Certificate of Completion page noting the quiz name, your quiz score, date, and your name. You can email, print out or take a picture of the certificate if your instructor has asked you to for a course.
• [Note that without carefully reviewing the readings and video tutorials you will probably not be able to answer many of the questions]