Focussing Your Topic

The Research Process Part 2
(General Guidelines For Building a Good Paper)

Focusing Your Topic

By this point you know a lot about what you will be writing about. You’ve done background research—reading about the history of the topics, discovering who some key players are in this debate and mapping out the various positions held in the controversy. You have developed your understanding of debate. Now it is time to figure out what aspect of that debate you will examine in greater detail in order to form your argument. First, you must focus your topic.

But why?

Failing to focus a topic is a common mistake students make. When the topic is too broad, there is too much to cover, which results in a paper that feels superficial or shallow. If you topics is too narrow—i.e. “what are the psychological effects of 7 am classes on CCD students with brown, well kept hair…” you won’t be able to find enough evidence to support your points.

What does this mean?

Focusing a research topic (or occasionally broadening it) is narrowing your topic (and choosing to focus on specific parts of it) so that you can demonstrate your expertise on a subject and effectively argue a position in that debate.

Let’s say you like animals. Developing a focus for your paper (and your research) means you start here:
Animals have feelings
And go here:
The use of dogs in the United States Military is useful, but at what cost?

This isn’t necessarily your thesis, but it has narrowed your interests into something you can work with. The point is with the later you have specific research needs; you are working with a specific type of animal in a specific situation—something you can tackle in 10-15 pages.


Note: You will not immediately know what your focus should be. It will come to you, most likely, through trial and error, through reading a lot articles and other literature that you will not ultimately use. Realize, you are shaping your thinking on this topic and as you learn more, your thoughts will change.



Start by defining your terms. How can your terms be broken down?
Example:
War is wrong

Defining the terms:
"War": What type (self-defense, aggressive preemptive strikes, rooted in ideology…)? By whom? What commonalities do you see in the wars you think are wrong?
"Wrong": How so? Results in unnecessary bloodshed? Has a drastic effect on the economy? Fail to foresee and plan for the complexities on the ground?
Focused:
In American history, wars that are rooted in ideology often have dire consequences for the economy.
You can always define again, and again, if need be. Do you see how this is putting the proper restraint on the topic? How you can now find specific examples and evidence to support this idea?


Try focusing on:

A specific location: Colorado’s community colleges have the best students.
Age group: Violence on television begets violence among pre-Kinder kids.
Species: While testing cosmetic products must be done, Chimpanzees should be spared because…
Ethnicity: What are the effects of our current immigration laws on Mexican-American families in the US?

Do Not Merely Restate Terms. War is bad because it’s war. No. Don’t do it.


Most of all, this is the moment to consider your approach to the subject. Are you writing about a specific element of smoking (marketing to children in Third World Countries) or about its more general elements (Smoking is still a big problem among today’s youth). You have to figure out where to go and how to get there.

Test your topic early. The night before a draft is due is a poor time to discover your topic is still too broad. The research process is a recursive one. You will need to come back to your topic time and time again if it isn’t working out. A lot of this is Goldilocks and porridge. You have to try a lot to find what is just right. Remember—Writing takes time.

In addition, try this, from (http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~wricntr/documents/Topic.html):

“Narrowing the Topic

The topic of an academic essay must be sufficiently focused and specific in order for a coherent argument to be made about it. For instance, "The Role of Such-and-Such in the Case of So-and-So v. So-and-So" is a topic that is somewhat narrowed. But if "Such-and-Such" is extremely general, it too will require further narrowing. "The Role of Societal Pressures in the Case of Jones v. Smith" is an example—it's too general. "Alleged Jury Tampering in the Case of Jones v. Smith" narrows those societal pressures, and begins to suggest a persuasive argument. (Of course, even this topic could be further narrowed.)

Going through the following steps will help you focus your subject, find a topic, and narrow it.

* Carefully read your primary source(s) and then, with the assignment in mind, go through them again, searching for passages that relate directly to the assignment and to your own curiosities and interests. When you find a passage that interests you, write down the reason for its significance. If you don't, you might forget its importance later.
* Annotate some of the most intriguing passages—write down your ideas, opinions and notes about particular words, phrases, sentences. Don't censor your thoughts! Just write, even if you think that what you're writing doesn't add up to much. For now, get your impressions on paper; later, you'll begin to order and unify them.
* Group passages and ideas into categories. Try to eliminate ideas that don't fit anywhere. Ask yourself if any of the emerging categories relate to any others. Do any of the categories connect, contradict, echo, prove, disprove, any others? The category with the most connections to others is probably your topic.
* Look at some relevant secondary sources—at what other scholars have said—in order to get a sense of potential counter-arguments to your developing topic. Remember: While taking notes, make sure to cite all information fully. This is a lot easier than having to go back later and figure out where you got a particular quote, or, worse, being unable to find it.” (Maxine Rodburg and The Tutors of the Writing Center at Harvard University, 1999).