Often a topic is too broad for a research assignment. For example, the topic of superheroes has so much to research you could write a book about it (e.g. The politics of the Marvel cinematic universe).
Narrowing your topic
Try one of these techniques to narrow your big ideas into a manageable topic:
The 5 Ws technique
Answer the following questions to help you focus and understand your topic.
- Who cares about your topic?
- What are some things that influence or are influenced by your topic?
- Where is your topic relevant?
- Why is your topic important?
- When in time was/is your topic relevant?
Free form writing technique (aka pre writing)
Free form writing help you collect your early thoughts and ideas about a topic. It is based on the idea that writing is really just thinking.
- write continuously for about 10 or 15 minutes
- don't worry about spelling or grammar
This will result in raw text that won’t be part of your paper. You will figure out what you know - and what you want to investigate further.
(Also, this strategy can be used anytime to overcome writer’s block!)
Mind map technique
A mind map is a visual method of exploring a topic:
- start with a pen and paper, whiteboard, website, or app that makes mind maps
- write your topic in the center
- next, write:
- subtopics
- related concepts
- questions you have about the topic
- words or ideas
- connect these subtopics to the center you created in step 2
- finally, narrow by highlighting or drawing a circle around a subset of subtopics
- for example, our mind map explores the topic of superheroes. We narrow our topic to superheroes, gender roles, sexualized, female, stereotypes.
