Narrowing Your Topic

1
Narrowing Your Topic

• Separating the Wheat
• from the Tares

2
Narrowing

• Once you have chosen a topic, and gathered
  background information, identify sub-topics, and
  sub-sub-topics in order to narrow your ideas into
  a research question.

3
Narrowing Your Topic
Main Topic
Sub-Topic
Sub-Sub-Topic
RQ
4
Example Topic

• Perhaps your teacher gives you a broad topic
  Globalization
• Think of a few areas you are passionate about,
  for example
• Music
• Sports
• History
• Do some background searching in each area, and
  decide which you are MOST interested in,
  remember, follow your passion!
• For this example, I choose music

5
Narrowing Helps

• It helps to ask questions about your topic in
  order to identify sub-topics, here are some
  examples
• GeographicallyIs there an area of the world, a
  country, a region or state that I can narrow to?
• Ex. What role does music play in globalization?
• CulturallyIs there a cultural, ethnic, or
  religious group that I have read about that I
  want to narrow to?
• Ex. Look at the spread of American pop music
  throughout the world, where is it most popular,
  what impact does it have, etc.?

6
Narrowing Helps

• By age groupIs there a specific age group that I
  can focus on?
• What age group consumes the most music worldwide?
• By time periodIs there a time period, either
  current or historical, that I can narrow to?
• Ex. What role did music play in the Apartheid?
• By disciplineIs there a logical way to narrow my
  topic by subject or discipline?
• Ex. How does music relate to international
  relations?

7
Narrowing Your Topic
Music
American Pop
Spread to Asia
What role does American pop music play in the
globalization of Asia?
8
Forming a Research Question

• Compare sub and sub-sub topics and look for
  connections such as
• Differences how/why are they different?
• Ex. How is American pop music different from
  Asian pop?
• Similarities how/why are they different?
• Ex. How is American pop similar to Asian pop?
  Which is more influential?

9
Forming a Research Question

• Look for gaps in research, what has been studied
  already, what areas need more research.
• Ex. What is already known, what hasnt been
  looked at?
• Ask questions such as why/how/when does this
  occur, who is involved, what are the foremost
  issues?

10
Finding Keywords

• It is important to have a variety of terms to
  search with.
• Take keywords from your research question and
  list synonyms for additional search terms.
• Think of related concepts, words, ideas, etc.
• Look at background information and glean related
  terms.

11
Finding Synonyms

• Ex What role does American pop music play in the
  globalization of Asia?