how to narrow down an essay topic

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Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper

Narrowing a Topic Idea
Purpose of Guide
Design Flaws to Avoid
Independent and Dependent Variables
Glossary of Research Terms
Reading Research Effectively
Broadening a Topic Idea
Extending the Timeliness of a Topic Idea
Academic Writing Style
Applying Critical Thinking
Choosing a Title
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Paragraph Development
Research Process Video Series
Executive Summary
The C.A.R.S. Model
Background Information
The Research Problem/Question
Theoretical Framework
Citation Tracking
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Evaluating Sources
Primary Sources
Secondary Sources
Tiertiary Sources
Scholarly vs. Popular Publications
Qualitative Methods
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Insiderness
Using Non-Textual Elements
Limitations of the Study
Common Grammar Mistakes
Writing Concisely
Avoiding Plagiarism
Footnotes or Endnotes?
Further Readings
Generative AI and Writing
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Bibliography

Importance of Narrowing the Research Topic

Whether you are assigned a general issue to investigate, must choose a problem to study from a list given to you by your professor, or you have to identify your own topic to investigate, it is important that the scope of the research problem is not too broad, otherwise, it will be difficult to adequately address the topic in the space and time allowed. You could experience a number of problems if your topic is too broad, including:

You find too many information sources and, as a consequence, it is difficult to decide what to include or exclude or what are the most relevant sources.
You find information that is too general and, as a consequence, it is difficult to develop a clear framework for examining the research problem.
A lack of sufficient parameters that clearly define the research problem makes it difficult to identify and apply the proper methods needed to analyze it.
You find information that covers a wide variety of concepts or ideas that can't be integrated into one paper and, as a consequence, you trail off into unnecessary tangents.

Lloyd-Walker, Beverly and Derek Walker. "Moving from Hunches to a Research Topic: Salient Literature and Research Methods." In Designs, Methods and Practices for Research of Project Management . Beverly Pasian, editor. ( Burlington, VT: Gower Publishing, 2015 ), pp. 119-129.

Strategies for Narrowing the Research Topic

A common challenge when beginning to write a research paper is determining how and in what ways to narrow down your topic . Even if your professor gives you a specific topic to study, it will almost never be so specific that you won’t have to narrow it down at least to some degree [besides, it is very boring to grade fifty papers that are all about the exact same thing!].

A topic is too broad to be manageable when a review of the literature reveals too many different, and oftentimes conflicting or only remotely related, ideas about how to investigate the research problem. Although you will want to start the writing process by considering a variety of different approaches to studying the research problem, you will need to narrow the focus of your investigation at some point early in the writing process. This way, you don't attempt to do too much in one paper.

Here are some strategies to help narrow the thematic focus of your paper :

Aspect -- choose one lens through which to view the research problem, or look at just one facet of it [e.g., rather than studying the role of food in South Asian religious rituals, study the role of food in Hindu marriage ceremonies, or, the role of one particular type of food among several religions].
Components -- determine if your initial variable or unit of analysis can be broken into smaller parts, which can then be analyzed more precisely [e.g., a study of tobacco use among adolescents can focus on just chewing tobacco rather than all forms of usage or, rather than adolescents in general, focus on female adolescents in a certain age range who choose to use tobacco].
Methodology -- the way in which you gather information can reduce the domain of interpretive analysis needed to address the research problem [e.g., a single case study can be designed to generate data that does not require as extensive an explanation as using multiple cases].
Place -- generally, the smaller the geographic unit of analysis, the more narrow the focus [e.g., rather than study trade relations issues in West Africa, study trade relations between Niger and Cameroon as a case study that helps to explain economic problems in the region].
Relationship -- ask yourself how do two or more different perspectives or variables relate to one another. Designing a study around the relationships between specific variables can help constrict the scope of analysis [e.g., cause/effect, compare/contrast, contemporary/historical, group/individual, child/adult, opinion/reason, problem/solution].
Time -- the shorter the time period of the study, the more narrow the focus [e.g., restricting the study of trade relations between Niger and Cameroon to only the period of 2010 - 2020].
Type -- focus your topic in terms of a specific type or class of people, places, or phenomena [e.g., a study of developing safer traffic patterns near schools can focus on SUVs, or just student drivers, or just the timing of traffic signals in the area].
Combination -- use two or more of the above strategies to focus your topic more narrowly.

NOTE: Apply one of the above strategies first in designing your study to determine if that gives you a manageable research problem to investigate. You will know if the problem is manageable by reviewing the literature on your more narrowed problem and assessing whether prior research is sufficient to move forward in your study [i.e., not too much, not too little]. Be careful, however, because combining multiple strategies risks creating the opposite problem--your problem becomes too narrowly defined and you can't locate enough research or data to support your study.

Booth, Wayne C. The Craft of Research . Fourth edition. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2016; Coming Up With Your Topic. Institute for Writing Rhetoric. Dartmouth College; Narrowing a Topic. Writing Center. University of Kansas; Narrowing Topics. Writing@CSU. Colorado State University; Strategies for Narrowing a Topic. University Libraries. Information Skills Modules. Virginia Tech University; The Process of Writing a Research Paper. Department of History. Trent University; Ways to Narrow Down a Topic. Contributing Authors. Utah State OpenCourseWare.

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Next: Broadening a Topic Idea >>
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Research Tips and Tricks

Getting Started
Understanding the Assignment
Topic Selection Tips

Topic Narrowing

Ways to narrow your topic, be careful, tools to help, youtube videos about narrowing a topic.

Breaking Topic Into Keywords
Developing A Search Strategy
Scholarly vs Popular Sources
What Are Primary Sources?
Finding Scholarly Articles
Finding Scholarly Books
Finding Primary Sources
Citing My Sources This link opens in a new window

Instructional Librarian

Talk to your professor

A common challenge when beginning to write a research paper is determining how to narrow down your topic.

Even if your professor gives you a topic to study, it will seldom be specific enough that you will not have to narrow it down, at least to some degree.

A topic is too broad to be manageable when you find that you have too many different, conflicting or only remotely related ideas.

Although you will want to start the writing process by considering a variety of different approaches to studying the research problem, you will need to narrow the focus of your investigation at some point early in the writing process - this way you don't attempt to do too much in one paper.

Here are some strategies to help narrow your topic :

Aspect -- choose one lens through which to view the research problem, or look at just one facet of it.

e.g., rather than studying the role of food in South Asian religious rituals, explore the role of food in Hindu ceremonies or the role of one particular type of food among several religions.

Components -- determine if your initial variable or unit of analysis can be broken into smaller parts, which can then be analyzed more precisely.

e.g., a study of tobacco use among adolescents can focus on just chewing tobacco rather than all forms of usage or, rather than adolescents in general, focus on female adolescents in a specific age range who choose to use tobacco.

Methodology -- how you gather information can reduce the domain of interpretive analysis needed to address the research problem.

e.g., a single case study can be designed to generate data that does not require as extensive an explanation as using multiple cases.

Place -- generally, the smaller the geographic unit of analysis, the more narrow the focus.

e.g., rather than study trade relations in North America, study trade relations between Mexico and the United States.

Relationship -- ask yourself how do two or more different perspectives or variables relate to one another. Designing a study around the relationships between specific variables can help constrict the scope of analysis.

e.g., cause/effect, compare/contrast, contemporary/historical, group/individual, male/female, opinion/reason, problem/solution.

Time -- the shorter the time period of the study, the more narrow the focus.

e.g., study of relations between Russia and the United States during the Vietnam War.

Type -- focus your topic in terms of a specific type or class of people, places, or phenomena.

e.g., a study of developing safer traffic patterns near schools can focus on SUVs, or just student drivers, or just the timing of traffic signals in the area.

Cause -- focus your topic to just one cause for your topic.

e.g., rather than writing about all the causes of WW1, just write about nationalism.

When narrowing your topic, make sure you don't narrow it too much. A topic is too narrow if you can state it in just a few words.

For example:

How many soldiers died during the first world war?
Who was the first President of the United States?
Why is ocean water salty?
Why are Pringles shaped the way they are?
Developing a Research Topic This exercise is designed to help you develop a thoughtful topic for your research assignment, including methods for narrowing your topic.
What Makes a Good Research Question?
Narrowing Your topic
Four Steps To Narrow Your Research Topic

<< Previous: Topic Selection Tips
Next: Breaking Topic Into Keywords >>
Last Updated: Apr 9, 2024 10:45 AM
URL: https://kingsu.libguides.com/research

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1-Research Questions

2. Narrowing a Topic

For many students, having to start with a research question is the biggest difference between how they did research in high school and how they are required to carry out their college research projects. It’s a process of working from the outside in: you start with the world of all possible topics (or your assigned topic) and narrow down until you’ve focused your interest enough to be able to tell precisely what you want to find out, instead of only what you want to “write about.”

Process of Narrowing a Topic

A Venn diagram of concentric circles to show narrowing from all possible topics to a specific research question.

All Possible Topics -You’ll need to narrow your topic in order to do research effectively. Without specific areas of focus, it will be hard to even know where to begin.

Assigned Topics – When professors assign a topic you have to narrow, they have already started the narrowing process. Narrowing a topic means making some part of it more specific. Ideas about a narrower topic can come from anywhere. Often, a narrower topic boils down to deciding what’s interesting to you. One way to get ideas is to read background information from a source like Wikipedia.

Topic Narrowed by Initial Exploration – It’s wise to do some more reading about that narrower topic to a) learn more about it and b) learn specialized terms used by professionals and scholars who study it.

Topic Narrowed to Research Question(s) – A research question defines exactly what you are trying to find out. It will influence most of the steps you take to conduct the research.

ACTIVITY: Which Topic Is Narrower?

When we talk about narrowing a topic, we’re talking about making it more specific. You can make it more specific by singling out at least one part or aspect of the original to decrease the scope of the original. Now here’s some practice for you to test your understanding.

Why Narrow a Topic?

Once you have a need for research—say, an assignment—you may need to prowl around a bit online to explore the topic and figure out what you actually want to find out and write about.

For instance, maybe your assignment is to develop a poster about the season “spring” for an introductory horticulture course. The instructor expects you to narrow that topic to something you are interested in and that is related to your class.

A pie chart with one small section labeled as A narrower topic is a slice of the larger one.

Ideas about a narrower topic can come from anywhere. In this case, a narrower topic boils down to deciding what’s interesting to you about “spring” that is related to what you’re learning in your horticulture class and small enough to manage in the time you have.

One way to get ideas would be to read about spring in Wikipedia, looking for things that seem interesting and relevant to your class, and then letting one thing lead to another as you keep reading and thinking about likely possibilities that are more narrow than the enormous “spring” topic. (Be sure to pay attention to the references at the bottom of most Wikipedia pages and pursue any that look interesting. Your instructor is not likely to let you cite Wikipedia, but those references may be citable scholarly sources that you could eventually decide to use.)

Or, instead, if it is spring at the time you could start by just looking around, admire the blooming trees on campus, and decide you’d like your poster to be about bud development on your favorites, the crabapple trees.

What you’re actually doing to narrow your topic is making at least one aspect of your topic more specific. For instance, assume your topic is the maintenance of the 130 miles of sidewalks on OSU’s Columbus campus. If you made maintenance more specific, your narrower topic might be snow removal on Columbus OSU’s sidewalks. If instead, you made the 130 miles of sidewalks more specific, your narrower topic might be maintenance of the sidewalks on all sides of Mirror Lake.

Anna Narrows Her Topic and Works on a Research Question

The Situation: Anna, an undergraduate, has been assigned a research paper on Antarctica. Her professor expects students to (1) narrow the topic on something more specific about Antarctica because they won’t have time to cover that whole topic. Then they are to (2) come up with a research question that their paper will answer.

The professor explained that the research question should be something they are interested in answering and that it must be more complicated than what they could answer with a quick Google search. He also said that research questions often, but not always, start with either the word “how” or “why.”

What you should do:

Read what Anna is thinking below as she tries to do the assignment.
After the reading, answer the questions at the end of the monologue in your own mind.
Check your answers with ours at the end of Anna’s interior monologue.
Keep this demonstration in mind the next time you are in Anna’s spot, and you can mimic her actions and think about your own topic.

Anna’s Interior Monologue

Okay, I am going to have to write something—a research paper—about Antarctica. I don’t know anything about that place—I think it’s a continent. I can’t think of a single thing I’ve ever wanted to know about Antarctica. How will I come up with a research question about that place? Calls for Wikipedia, I guess.

Anna with thought bubble showing a desert

At https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctica . Just skimming. Pretty boring stuff. Oh, look– Antarctica’s a desert! I guess “desert” doesn’t have to do with heat. That’s interesting. What else could it have to do with? Maybe lack of precipitation? But there’s lots of snow and ice there. Have to think about that—what makes a desert a desert?

It says one to five thousand people live there in research stations. Year-round. Definitely, the last thing I’d ever do. “…there is no evidence that it was seen by humans until the 19th century.” I never thought about whether anybody lived in Antarctica first, before the scientists and stuff.

Lots of names—explorer, explorer… boring. It says Amundson reached the South Pole first. Who’s Amundson? But wait. It says, “One month later, the doomed Scott Expedition reached the pole.” Doomed? Doomed is always interesting. Where’s more about the Scott Expedition? I’m going to use that Control-F technique and type in Scott to see if I can find more about him on this page. Nothing beyond that one sentence shows up. Why would they have just that one sentence? I’ll have to click on the Scott Expedition link.

Anna with thought bubble showing Terra Nova Expedition

But it gives me a page called Terra Nova Expedition. What does that have to do with Scott? And just who was Scott? And why was his expedition doomed? There he is in a photo before going to Antarctica. Guess he was English. Other photos show him and his team in the snow. Oh, the expedition was named Terra Nova after the ship they sailed this time—in 1911. Scott had been there earlier on another ship.

Lots of stuff about preparing for the trip. Then stuff about expedition journeys once they were in Antarctica. Not very exciting—nothing about being doomed. I don’t want to write about this stuff.

Wait. The last paragraph of the first section says “For many years after his death, Scott’s status as a tragic hero was unchallenged,” but then it says that in the 20th-century people looked closer at the expedition’s management and at whether Scott and some of his team could be personally blamed for the catastrophe. That “remains controversial,” it says. Catastrophe? Personally blamed? Hmm.

Back to skimming. It all seems horrible to me. They actually planned to kill their ponies for meat, so when they actually did it, it was no surprise. Everything was extremely difficult. And then when they arrived at the South Pole, they found that the explorer Amundsen had beaten them. Must have been a big disappointment.

The homeward march was even worse. The weather got worse. The dog sleds that were supposed to meet them periodically with supplies didn’t show up. Or maybe the Scott group was lost and didn’t go to the right meeting places. Maybe that’s what that earlier statement meant about whether the decisions that were made were good ones. Scott’s diary said the crystallized snow made it seem like they were pushing and pulling the sledges through dry sand .

It says that before things turned really bad ( really bad? You’ve already had to eat your horses !), Scott allowed his men to put 30 pounds of rocks with fossils on the sledges they were pushing and dragging. Now was that sensible? The men had to push or pull those sledges themselves. What if it was those rocks that actually doomed those men?

But here it says that those rocks are the proof of continental drift. So how did they know those rocks were so important? Was that knowledge worth their lives? Could they have known?

Wow–there is drama on this page! Scott’s diary is quoted about their troubles on the expedition—the relentless cold, frostbite, and the deaths of their dogs. One entry tells of a guy on Scott’s team “now with hands as well as feet pretty well useless” voluntarily leaving the tent and walking to his death. The diary says that the team member’s last words were ”I am just going outside and may be some time.” Ha!

They all seem lost and desperate but still have those sledges. Why would you keep pulling and pushing those sledges containing an extra 30 pounds of rock when you are so desperate and every step is life or death?

Anna with thought bubble showing a diary

Then there’s Scott’s last diary entry, on March 29, 1912. “… It seems a pity but I do not think I can write more.” Well.

That diary apparently gave lots of locations of where he thought they were but maybe they were lost. It says they ended up only 11 miles from one of their supply stations. I wonder if anybody knows how close they were to where Scott thought they were.

I’d love to see that diary. Wouldn’t that be cool? Online? I’ll Google it.

Yes! At the British museum. Look at that! I can see Scott’s last entry IN HIS OWN HANDWRITING!

Anna with thought bubble showing a web page

Actually, if I decide to write about something that requires reading the diary, it would be easier to not have to decipher his handwriting. Wonder whether there is a typed version of it online somewhere?

Maybe I should pay attention to the early paragraph on the Terra Nova Expedition page in Wikipedia—about it being controversial whether Scott and his team made bad decisions so that they brought most of their troubles on themselves. Can I narrow my topic to just the controversy over whether bad decisions of Scott and his crew doomed them? Maybe it’s too big a topic if I consider the decisions of all team members. Maybe I should just consider Scott’s decisions.

So what research question could come from that? Maybe: how did Scott’s decisions contribute to his team’s deaths in Antarctica? But am I talking about his decisions before or after they left for Antarctica? Or the whole time they were a team? Probably too many decisions involved. More focused: How did Scott’s decisions after reaching the South Pole help or hurt the chances of his team getting back safely? That’s not bad—maybe. If people have written about that. There are several of his decisions discussed on the Wikipedia page, and I know there are sources at the bottom of that page.

Anna with thought bubble showing a dessert

Let me think—what else did I see that was interesting or puzzling about all this? I remember being surprised that Antarctica is a desert. So maybe I could make Antarctica as a desert my topic. My research question could be something like: Why is Antarctica considered a desert? But there has to be a definition of deserts somewhere online, so that doesn’t sound complicated enough. Once you know the definition of desert, you’d know the answer to the question. Professor Sanders says research questions are more complicated than regular questions.

What’s a topic I could care about? A question I really wonder about? Maybe those rocks with the fossils in them. It’s just so hard to imagine desperate explorers continuing to push those sledges with an extra 30 pounds of rocks on them. Did they somehow know how important they would be? Or were they just curious about them? Why didn’t they ditch them? Or maybe they just didn’t realize how close to death they were. Maybe I could narrow my Antarctica topic to those rocks.

Maybe my narrowed topic could be something like: The rocks that Scott and his crew found in Antarctica that prove continental drift. Maybe my research question could be: How did Scott’s explorers choose the rocks they kept?

Well, now all I have is questions about my questions. Like, is my professor going to think the question about the rocks is still about Antarctica? Or is it all about continental drift or geology or even the psychology of desperate people? And what has been written about the finding of those rocks? Will I be able to find enough sources? I’m also wondering whether my question about Scott’s decisions is too big—do I have enough time for it?

Anna with thought bubble showing people talking

I think my professor is the only one who can tell me whether my question about the rocks has enough to do with Antarctica. Since he’s the one who will be grading my paper. But a librarian can help me figure out the other things.

So Dr. Sanders and a librarian are next.

Reflection Questions

Was Anna’s choice to start with Wikipedia a good choice? Why or why not?
Have you ever used that Control-F technique?
At what points does Anna think about where to look for information?
At the end of this session, Anna hasn’t yet settled on a research question. So what did she accomplish? What good was all this searching and thinking?

Our Answers:

Was Anna’s choice to start with Wikipedia a good choice? Why or why not? Wikipedia is a great place to start a research project. Just make sure you move on from there, because it’s a not a good place to end up with your project. One place to move on to is the sources at the bottom of most Wikipedia pages.
Have you ever used that Control-F technique? If you haven’t used the Control-F technique, we hope you will. It can save you a lot of time and effort reading online material.
At what points does Anna think about where to look for information ? When she began; when she wanted to know more about the Scott expedition; when she wonders whether she could read Scott’s diary online; when she thinks about what people could answer her questions.
At the end of this session, Anna hasn’t yet settled on a research question. So what did she accomplish? What good was all this reading and thinking? There are probably many answers to this question. Ours includes that Anna learned more about Antarctica, the subject of her research project. She focused her thinking (even if she doesn’t end up using the possible research questions she’s considering) and practiced critical thinking skills, such as when she thought about what she could be interested in, when she worked to make her potential research questions more specific, and when she figured out what questions still needed answering at the end. She also practiced her skills at making meaning from what she read, investigating a story that she didn’t expect to be there and didn’t know had the potential of being one that she is interested in. She also now knows what questions she needs answered and whom to ask. These thinking skills are what college is all about. Anna is way beyond where she was when she started.

Choosing & Using Sources: A Guide to Academic Research Copyright © 2015 by Teaching & Learning, Ohio State University Libraries is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Generate topic ideas for an essay or paper | Tips & techniques

Generate Topic Ideas For an Essay or Paper | Tips & Techniques

Published on November 17, 2014 by Shane Bryson . Revised on July 23, 2023 by Shona McCombes.

If you haven’t been given a specific topic for your essay or paper , the first step is coming up with ideas and deciding what you want to write about. Generating ideas is the least methodical and most creative step in academic writing .

There are infinite ways to generate ideas, but no sure-fire way to come up with a good one. This article outlines some tips and techniques for choosing a topic – use the ones that work best for you.

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Understanding the assignment, techniques for generating topic ideas, tips for finding a good idea, other interesting articles.

First, you need to determine the scope of what you can write about. Make sure you understand the assignment you’ve been given, and make sure you know the answers to these questions:

What is the required length of the paper (in words or pages)?
What is the deadline?
Should the paper relate to what you’ve studied in class?
Do you have to do your own research and use sources that haven’t been taught in class?
Are there any constraints on the subject matter or approach?

The length and deadline of the assignment determine how complex your topic can be. The prompt might tell you write a certain type of essay, or it might give you a broad subject area and hint at the kind of approach you should take.

This prompt gives us a very general subject. It doesn’t ask for a specific type of essay, but the word explain suggests that an expository essay is the most appropriate response.

This prompt takes a different approach to the same subject. It asks a question that requires you to take a strong position. This is an argumentative essay that requires you to use evidence from sources to support your argument.

Receive feedback on language, structure, and formatting

Professional editors proofread and edit your paper by focusing on:

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Getting started is often the hardest part. Try these 3 simple strategies to help get your mind moving.

Talk it out

Discussing ideas with a teacher, friend or fellow student often helps you find new avenues to approach the ideas you have and helps you uncover ideas you might not have considered.

Write down as many ideas as you can and make point form notes on them as you go. When you feel you’ve written down the obvious things that relate to an idea, move on to a new one, or explore a related idea in more depth.

You can also cluster related ideas together and draw connections between them on the page.

This strategy is similar to brainstorming, but it is faster and less reflective. Give yourself a broad topic to write about. Then, on a pad of paper or a word processor, write continuously for two or three minutes. Don’t stop, not even for a moment.

Write down anything that comes to mind, no matter how nonsensical it seems, as long as it somehow relates to the topic you began with. If you need to, time yourself to make sure you write for a few minutes straight.

When you’ve finished, read through what you’ve written and identify any useful ideas that have come out of the exercise.

Whichever strategy you use, you’ll probably come up with lots of ideas, but follow these tips to help you choose the best one.

Don’t feel you need to work logically

Good ideas often have strange origins. An apple fell on Isaac Newton’s head, and this gave us the idea of gravity. Mary Shelley had a dream, and this gave us her famous literary classic, Frankenstein .

It does not matter how you get your idea; what matters is that you find a good one.

Work from general to specific

Your first good idea won’t take the form of a fully-formed thesis statement . Find a topic before you find an argument.

You’ll need to think about your topic in broad, general terms before you can narrow it down and make it more precise.

Maintain momentum

Don’t be critical of your ideas at this stage – it can hinder your creativity. If you think too much about the flaws in your ideas, you will lose momentum.

Creative momentum is important: the first ten in a string of related ideas might be garbage, but the eleventh could be pure gold. You’ll never reach the eleventh if you shut down your thought process at the second.

Let ideas go

Don’t get too attached to the first appealing topic you think of. It might be a great idea, but it also might turn out to be a dud once you start researching and give it some critical thought .

Thinking about a new topic doesn’t mean abandoning an old one – you can easily come back to your original ideas later and decide which ones work best.

Choose a topic that interests you

A bored writer makes for boring writing. Try to find an idea that you’ll enjoy writing about, or a way to integrate your interests with your topic.

In the worst case scenario, pick the least boring topic of all of the boring topics you’re faced with.

Keep a notepad close

Good ideas will cross your mind when you least expect it. When they do, make sure that you can hold onto them.

Many people come up with their best ideas just before falling asleep; you might find it useful to keep a notepad by your bed.

Once you’ve settled on an idea, you’ll need to start working on your thesis statement and planning your paper’s structure.

If you find yourself struggling to come up with a good thesis on your topic, it might not be the right choice – you can always change your mind and go back to previous ideas.

Write a thesis statement Make an essay outline

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If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

Ad hominem fallacy
Post hoc fallacy
Appeal to authority fallacy
False cause fallacy
Sunk cost fallacy

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Prewriting: Ground Zero

19 Selecting and Narrowing a Topic

When you need to write something longer than a text or an email, whether it’s a class assignment, a report for work, or a personal writing task, there’s work to be done before you dive in and begin writing. This phase is called prewriting (even though some types of prewriting involve actual writing).

Note that even though instructors may describe a writing process as having steps that seem to go in order, writers usually skip back and forth between those steps as they work toward a final draft. While you’re in the early stage of prewriting, you might use freewriting (a technique for generating text that you’ll learn more about in the section titled “ Gathering Ideas “) and then use that technique again after revising your first draft. When instructors describe writing as “ recursive ,” this process is what they are talking about. The techniques described for prewriting may come in handy later in your own writing process.

Narrowing/Choosing Your Topic

If you’re working on a course assignment, you may get to select your own topic or a topic may be assigned to you.

If you get to choose your topic, be sure that you understand the kind of topic that will fit the assignment. For example, if your instructor asks you to write an argument about a local problem in your community, you wouldn’t choose to write about the national debt—that’s not a local problem, but a national one. You might try some of the techniques in this resource, like freewriting , listing , or clustering , to discover topics you are interested in. You might use your library’s online databases to search for interesting topics, especially databases that give pros and cons for current issues.

But even if the instructor assigns the topic, you can find ways to make it your own.

Some More Types of Assignments from Instructors

Most of the time, instructors give specific assignments that relate to the course and perhaps to assigned readings or discussions from class. When you are given a specific topic, be sure that you understand what you have been asked to do. Look for the verbs used in the assignment. Here are some common verbs from writing assignments and what they usually mean:

Summarize : If you are asked to write a summary of something you’ve read, you will be giving the main points and the supporting points from the text. A summary usually does not include your personal opinion.
Respond : When you are asked to respond to a text, you can give your opinion in a variety of ways. You might talk about the quality of the text, connections you made with the text, or whether you agree or disagree with the author’s ideas. You may need to incorporate a little bit of summary so that the reader has enough background to understand your response. The summary might be in the form of a single paragraph after your introduction, it might be a few sentences within your introduction, or it might be incorporated in multiple paragraphs in a sentence or two.
Analyze : An analysis breaks something down into parts in order to understand the whole.
Synthesize : A synthesis combines two or more ideas into a larger whole. For more on synthesis, see “ Synthesizing ” in this text.
Compare and contrast : When you are asked to compare and contrast (or sometimes the instructor will just say compare, but mean both), you will be looking at two items and stating how they are alike and how they are different.
Reflect : A reflection asks you to deeply consider something, often on a personal basis. For example, you might be asked to write a personal reflection about your own writing or about your progress during a course. Or you might be asked to reflect on how a particular issue affects you.
Other terms : There are many possible verbs that you might find in an assignment. If you are unsure what the assignment calls for, be sure to ask your instructor.

Picking Your Own Topic When One Isn’t Assigned

For some assignments, you may be able to write about a topic that is personally significant to you. Being able to write about a topic like this can improve your motivation. Be wary, though, of just writing opinion without backing up your ideas with reasons and evidence that your readers will find convincing. If you want to write about a deeply personal topic, be sure that you are willing to share that with others and also consider whether or not your readers want to know that information about you.

One way to narrow your topic is to decide what you DON’T want to write about. What ideas or subtopics could you eliminate?

Using Preliminary Research

Another way to narrow your topic is to do some preliminary research—not the kind of research you would include in an essay, but rather quick online research to inform yourself about the topic. This is one example of when it’s okay to use a simple Google search or use Wikipedia. Once you see what other people are writing about your topic, it can help you see areas that are interesting to you, and it can also help you understand what people, in general, agree on and what is still undecided and needs to be further explored.

Using Purpose to Determine Topic

You can also use your purpose for writing to define your topic:

Informative : if your purpose in writing is to inform your readers, what are topics that you already know a lot about? What are some interesting topics that you could easily research?
Persuasive : if your purpose is to persuade readers to think a certain way or to take an action, what are some topics that you feel strongly about? What are some topics that are currently under discussion that you could explore and form an opinion on?
Reflective : if your purpose is to reflect on a personal experience or on your learning process, you can explore your knowledge and experience.
Analytical : if your purpose is to analyze something (usually a text of some kind), is there an assigned list or a specific text? If you get to choose, what books, essays, poems, films, songs, etc. have you recently been exposed to that you could analyze?

Text Attributions

This chapter was adapted from “ Selecting and Narrowing a Topic ” in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence . Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

Media Attributions

“Sustainability image” by Intel Free Press is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 Licence.

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Research Guides

Finding and Exploring Your Topic

Narrowing/Broadening Your Topic
General Brainstorming
Subject-Specific Brainstorming
Understanding Your Topic

Brainstorming

A bubble chart like the one below can help you brainstorm different ways that your topic can be narrowed or broadened.

Narrowing Your Topic

Sometimes a topic that seems like the right size for your paper can seem way too big after you’ve learned a little more about it. When this happens, you need to narrow the focus of your paper. You can do this by considering different ways to restrict your paper topic.

Some of the ways you can limit your paper topic are by:

Who – population or group (e.g., college students; women; Asian Americans)
What – discipline or focus (e.g., sociological or historical perspective)
Where – geographic location (e.g., United States; universities; small towns)
When – time period or era (19 th century; Renaissance; Vietnam War)
Why – why is the topic important? (to the class, to the field, or to you)

For example, a paper about alcohol use would be very broad. But a paper about reasons for alcohol abuse by female college students in the United States during the 1990s might be just right.

Goldilocker: An Online Tool For Narrowing Your Topic

The University of Michigan Library Learning and Teaching Team has created an online tool to help you narrow your topic. The Goldilocker tool can be used as a stand alone/personal exercise to articulate your topic in a much more narrow fashion. It can also be used in conjunction with University of Michigan courses and classes outside of the university.

Broadening Your Topic

Sometimes you will find that your topic is too narrow - there is not enough published on your topic. When this happens, you can try to broaden your topic. There are a couple of strategies you can try when broadening your topic.

One strategy is to choose less specific terms for your search, e.g., standardized tests instead of SATs, or performance-enhancing drugs instead of anabolic steroids.

Another strategy is to broaden your topic by changing or removing limits or filters from your topic:

Who - population or group (e.g., instead of college students, choose a broader section of the population)
What - discipline or focus (e.g., instead of choosing a sociological perspective, look at a number of perspectives)
Where - geographic location (e.g., instead of Michigan, choose United States)
When - time period or era (e.g., instead of 1984, choose 1980s or 20th century)

For example, a paper about alcohol use by college students at the University of Michigan in 1984 might be too narrow of a focus. But a paper about alcohol use by college students in the 1980s might be just right.

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Brainstorming Strategy: Narrowing a Topic

Brainstorming is the process by which ideas are produced using techniques like concept mapping, free-writing, etc. Choosing a topic can be a difficult process when starting an assignment or writing a paper, and brainstorming can be used to choose a topic or narrow down a broad topic. Narrowing your topic is an important step in the research process. A broad, general topic makes it difficult to find specified research, so narrowing down the topic is needed.

WHAT ARE KEYWORDS?

Keywords are specific words or phrases that relate to your main idea or research question. They are used in brainstorming to determine search terms to use in finding research or narrowing down a topic. Keywords can be specific search words found in your research question, synonyms, phrases, or jargon that are common in the field of study.

How to Narrow Your Topic

Start by writing down your broad topic.

Use of social media and children

2. Next, identify the main ideas or terms.

social media

3. Using your list of ideas, try to describe Who, What, Where, When, How, and Why about your topic to determine specifics. Do any of these topics sound interesting? Would you be interested in researching them for your assignment?

Example
Who	Juvenile, pre-adolescent, adolescent, teenage
What	Twitter, Instagram, Facebook
Where	Online, in daily life, at school
When	Early life, childhood, puberty, young adulthood
How	Social, emotional, physical, behavioral
Why	Causes, effects

4. Once you have determined which words you’d like to use, combine aspects of your list to create a narrowed down topic.

Example
Who	Juvenile, pre-adolescent, , teenage
What	Twitter, , Facebook
Where	Online, in daily life, at school
When	Early life, childhood, puberty, young adulthood
How	, emotional, physical, behavioral
Why	Causes,

Narrow research question: What are the effects of using Instagram on the behavior of adolescents?

5. Now, use these keywords and phrases to start searching for sources using the Grand Valley State University Libraries online databases.

RELATED IDEAS

Understanding your assignment
Concept mapping
Asking questions
Broadening a topic
Choosing keywords
Choosing a topic from scratch
Choosing a topic from a theme
Choosing a topic with subject terms
Developing a research question
Finding sources

Meet with a Consultant

Have other questions? Research consultants can help! We specialize in brainstorming topics, finding sources, reading scholarly materials, and evaluating research.

Stop by the Knowledge Market during open hours or make an appointment to talk with a research consultant.

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1 Narrowing a Topic

Defining your research question is a process of working from the outside in: you start with the world of all possible topics (or your assigned topic) and narrow down until you have focused your interest enough to be able to state precisely what you want to find out, instead of only what you want to “write about.”

Going through this process can be the hardest part of doing research, but once you have a question that is realistically scoped (not too broad, not too narrow) it will guide the rest of your work.

The Process of Narrowing a Topic

Concentric circles from broad topic to narrow question

ACTIVITY: Which Topic is Narrower?

Now it’s your turn. Practice thinking about narrower topics with these 3 examples. Click the arrow to show the next question.

TIP: Use Some of the 5 W’s to Help Narrow Your Topic to a Searchable Question

Your assignment is to write on the topic of higher education. You decide you want to write about the high cost of tuition, but that is still too broad.

Start by asking some or all of the following questions.


	First year students, mature students, part-time students
	Graduation rates, degree completion, attrition, dropout
	Last 10 years
	Financial burden, employment, student debt

From asking these questions, you might come up with a research question like this:

“How does the high cost of tuition impact the degree completion of mature college students?”

Image: “ Rq-narrow ” by Teaching and Learning, University Libraries is licensed under CC BY-4.0 .

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Spartanburg Community College Library
SCC Research Guides

IDS 101 - Argumentative Essay (Haller)

3. Narrow Your Topic

Ask yourself:

What aspect of the topic do I want to focus on?

What interests me about the topic?

What do I want to write about?

Is there more than one side to this issue? What are the opposing viewpoints on it?

As you start to narrow this down into a topic/thesis, you'll want to continue to look for more sources. As you research, you might tweak or adjust your topic/thesis. In order to help you find more related sources about your topic, you'll want to identify keywords to help you search.

As you think about what concepts you want to research, think about what particular words might be found in a good article about that topic. For instance, if you are writing about the paying college athletes , think of related keywords:

You can also combine your keywords to find articles connecting the two ideas. Unlike Google, our library databases work best using connector terms, such as AND or OR .


searches terms together.	gives you results.

Keywords work best by trial-and-error. Never do only one search. Some keywords will work better than others, and some keywords may lead you to different articles than you found in your first search. Search the databases with the keywords you selected to find relevant articles. And remember to ask a librarian if you need assistance coming up with keywords or looking for sources.

<< Previous: 2. Explore Your Topic
Next: 4. Find Sources >>
1. Getting Started
2. Explore Your Topic
4. Find Sources
5. Cite Your Sources
6. Evaluate Your Sources
7. Write Your Paper

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Understanding your assignment questions: A short guide

Introduction

Breaking down an assignment question

Ways to get started, how do you narrow down a broad or general essay question, parts of a question, specific vs general essay questions.

Further reading and references

Before you attempt to answer an assignment question, you need to make sure you understand what it is asking.

This includes the subject matter, but also the way in which you are required to write.

Different questions may ask you to discuss, outline, evaluate...and many more. The task words are a key part of the question.

Once you have broken down and understood your assignment question, you can start to jot down your ideas, organise your research, and figure out exactly what point you want to argue in your essay.

Here is something to try if you are struggling to get going with responding to the assignment question:

Try to come up with a one word answer to the question ('yes,' 'no',' maybe'- or perhaps two words: 'not quite'; ''only sometimes');
Then expand the one-word answer into a sentence summarising your reason for saying that;
Then expand that sentence into three sentences. This could be the beginning of your essay plan.
Choose one or two key aspects of the topic to focus your argument around.
Focus on a few examples rather than trying to cover everything that falls under that topic.
Decide on a standpoint you want to argue (this applies to specific essay questions too).
Make sure your introduction explains your chosen focus aim and argument.

Directive or task words : Tell you exactly what to do e.g., discuss, argue etc.

Subject matter : Specifically what you should be writing about.

Limiting words : Parts of the question that may narrow or alter the focus of your answer.

Example : To what extent can the novel White Teeth by Zadie Smith be read differently in the light of the 9/11 Terrorist Attack?

To what extent: This indicates you will need to explore both sides of the topic in a critical way and reach a decision
Be read differently: This limiting phrase indicates that you will not be writing everything you know about White Teeth and 9/11. You will be focussing on whether or not the terrorist attack alters our reading of the novel. Every point you make should contribute to this.
White Teeth: You will need to focus on this novel
9/11 Terrorist Attack: You will also need to write about this event in relation to the novel

Some essay questions may have a narrow focus e.g., 'To what extent can it be argued that Byron and Keats are second generation Romantic poets?'.

While other may be quite broad e.g., ' Evaluate the effect of landscape on the expansion of the town'.

The first example indicates exactly which poets to focus on, and which aspect of their work to explore. The second example is much broader: it doesn't specify which features of landscape, or which towns should be analysed.

Even if the essay question is broad, your answer should have a clear and specific focus. Therefore, you need to choose an area of the topic to concentrate on. If answering the second of the two questions above, you would not need to write about the impact if every type of landscape on every town in the world. It is normally better to write a lot about a little, rather than a little about a lot.

It is also important to note that, although the specific essay question tells you which poets to focus on and which aspect of their work to discuss, it does not dictate which way you have to argue. You are still free to choose your own standpoint (based on evidence) as to whether or not Byron and Keats can be seen as second generation Romantic poets.

<< Previous: Introduction
Next: Task words >>
Last Updated: Nov 13, 2023 4:28 PM
URL: https://libguides.bham.ac.uk/asc/understandingassignments

Narrowing Down The Topic

In narrowing down your topic, you should consider the following ideas:

Identify and define the main elements of the topic that you have chosen and look at the different ways that they can be applied to the primary material of your essay.
Pay attention to the length that the professor has assigned for the essay. The length can dictate the amount of information that you will be able to fit into your paper. The length will also dictate the number of body parts that you will be able to use to support your thesis. As a general rule, the shorter the essay, the more limited and precise the topic will be. The longer the essay, the more space you will have to explore your topic and its implications and complexity.
In narrowing down your topic, pay attention to the specific aspects of the topic that are addressed within the primary text(s) for your essay and within class discussion. This will give you an indication of the specific ways that you can write about your source material. Professors are usually looking for a specific topic that addresses one of the central ideas of the material that you are studying. Choose the specific aspect that you feel runs through as much of the text as possible. This will afford you a topic that can be developed through the course of the primary source(s) to present your reading audience with a clearer view of the text or the ideas that dominate the material.
If you have any doubts about how you can find a specific aspect to address within the assigned topics, or if you are unsure as to which aspect you should focus on, do not hesitate to contact your professor for guidance. Often, this can save you a great deal of wasted effort and can help to focus your attention on a specific avenue for researching your topic.

Blog Inventory

60 Essay Topics to Narrow Down Your Topic Search

April 24, 2019
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Essay writing itself is a rough ride for most students and choosing the right topic often becomes harder for them. A perfect essay topic, which can easily pour excitement in your readers’ minds, is like a treasure for some. However, there is nothing much to worry about as Management Writing Solutions is here to draw an end to your search. We introduce you to the open book enclosing numerous essay topics for far cry categories of essays. So go ahead and craft a quality write-up ready at the soonest.

A Strong Agenda for Picking an Essay Topic

Before you shortlist a suitable topic for your custom essay , there are certain tasks you have to perform successfully. So take a look at the checklist to narrow down your options and pick a highlighting essay topic.

Here it goes…

Brainstorm and collect your own ideas.
Discuss with other students and jot down multiple ideas together.
Research on each topic you’ve shortlisted, and encounter the topic that carries the most information with some exciting facts.
Put a tick beside each topic you find potential from the checklist and narrow down your search to write your college homework .
Is the topic exciting enough to motivate your readers?
Will it serve any purpose to the field of your education?
Can you finish writing the entire paper before the deadline?
Does the topic enable you to demonstrate your expertise in writing?
Are there sufficient resources available to discuss your topic minutely?
Can you establish a better understanding of the subject matter properly?

Essay Topics of Different Categories

There are numerous forms of essay writing and the features of the topic rely upon the specifications of the paper. For example, argumentative and persuasive essay topics are mostly identical. However, reflective or narrative essay topics are entire of different forms. So take a look at the buy essay online topics by categories and choose the right one for yourself.

Argumentative Essay Topics

Should there be more rights to the immigrants?
Impact of a ‘Fake news’ in social and political life.
Was Depp the best choice for Burton’s “Ed Wood”?
Why is not logical to judge a single genre of music?
Why should artists never be judged as unemployed?
How effective it is to have a LinkedIn profile for finding a good job?
How do children change in a positive manner when involved in sports?
Why do think that the lefty guitar players get more blessings from the public?
Is it possible for corporations to build a chip for controlling employees’ minds?
Students should stay away from competitions for their own development of minds.

Persuasive Essay Topics

Happiness comes from within. Don’t seek it elsewhere.
Why is identity theft being a big issue for elderly people?
Carrying electroshock weapons should be legal for adults.
Being a pro in video gaming can get you a high-salaried job.
Animals should not go through the commercial testing process.
We should influence selfishness to adopt it as an innate human nature.
How is the grading system being too heavy on the students’ shoulders?
In the advance classrooms, exams aren’t justifying the students’ abilities.
All the fast food restaurants should clearly showcase the number of calories
Cyber-attacking should be the strongest tool for most countries to save their homes.

Reflective Essay Topics

A memorable family reunion.
The day when everything made me laugh the hardest.
A visit to the mountains with friends for the first time.
The day when you chose someone else’s wish over yours.
An unforgettable day with my parents in an amusement park.
When was the last time your parents felt proud because of you?
The pre-planned house party where everything went unplanned.
What was the worst public speaking day you had in your college?
The moment I confronted my boss regarding my job-unsatisfaction.
The best vacation of your life when you didn’t feel like checking your phone.

Descriptive Essay Topics

The scariest moment of your life.
The best moment you spent with your pet.
The house where you grew up since childhood.
Describe the person who inspires you the most.
The live performance of your favorite musician.
Your favorite dream that never came into reality.
Introduce yourself to someone who never met you.
An object that witnessed every story of your family.
A peaceful place where you like visiting when upset.
The oldest memory with your parents that you’ll cherish forever.

Narrative Essay Topics

Who you wanted to be when you were a kid?
The situation that embarrassed you the most.
The biggest lie you ever said to your parents.
The first MBA event you attended in your college.
The most difficult decision you ever took in your life.
An event that changed your views towards life forever.
An unavoidable moment that you never wanted to confront.
How did your teachers contribute to the life that you live today?
Why is your best friend during your primary classes still your best friend?
What was your favorite childhood game that you would still like to play?

Scholarship Essay Topics

Your perception of being a successful person.
The right measures for gun control in this country.
What educational goals have you set for your career?
How would you develop a short video to stop smoking?
What is your best teammate spirit that you feel proud of?
What could you do to bring a positive change in our world?
What could be the best way to control texting while driving?
What can be the most innovative solution to cut down waste?
How is technology degrading the standard of students’ learning?
What would be your first step towards being a genuine social worker?

Get the Perfect Essay Ready with Professional Help

Once you shortlist a suitable essay topic for yourself, get set go for crafting the perfect paper. However, some of you may not get ample time to write the essay following the correct format and tone. In that case, I would suggest you get in touch with our professional writers and get efficient essay writing help. Our best custom essay writing service is constantly available from their end to help students with their academic essay writing. So feel free to connect with us and leave your paper writing worries forever.

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The Extended Essay Step-by-Step Guide 2: Your Topic

There is a secret that could help all you first year IB students out there. It is the key to making next year a whole lot easier. It will reduce stress, make the workload easier to handle, and give you time. What is the secret? It’s that you’re better off starting the Extended Essay as soon as possible.

I know, it’s not what you wanted to hear. But I promise you that putting time and effort into your Extended Essay now will save you about five times that effort later. Because balancing the Extended Essay alongside Internal Assessments, Theory of Knowledge and IB revision is not fun.

In this blog series we’re going to take you step-by-step through the Extended Essay process. We started with the first step, what is it? Now it’s time to find a topic. If you are sitting there thinking you have no idea how you will ever find something to write about, you aren’t alone. That’s why we’ve chosen our four favourite tricks to help you identify what it is you will spend those 40 hours working on. Yes, 40 hours. That’s how long the IB recommends you spend. So you see why it’s better to start now?

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At Lanterna we have over 300 tutors who smashed their EE. They know exactly how to get an A in your Extended Essay and can give you tips and tricks on how you can do the same. What are you waiting for? Get your own tutor today!

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1. Plan Your ‘Topic Choosing Time’

Your perfect topic is not going to arrive knocking at your bedroom door one day delivered by the inspiration bunny*. With all that other homework, CAS and whatever else you have going on, you are not going to find your topic until you commit quality time to thinking about it. And that means scheduling sessions for yourself which are exclusively devoted to this.

Three hour-long sessions over the course of three weeks might not sound like a lot, but might be all you need to identify what you want to write about. And it may well be three hours more than you would have spent if you hadn’t planned them ahead of time. Note that you should give yourself time between the sessions, because this gives your subconscious the chance to work on it on the side (time and sleep are both great for this sort of problem solving!).

During these sessions, do expect some amount of banging your head against the wall (not physically) before you find the right topic. If you sit there feeling like it’s impossible, keep going. It’s part of the process. However, if you’re at a loss for what exactly to do, we have some exercises you can try that just might do the trick.

Exercise 1 : Brainstorm your interests. If you know what subject you want to write about then take a piece of paper and give yourself 5 minutes to write down all the things, topics and lessons you enjoyed in the past year. Then take another 5 minutes to write down all the things you haven’t covered but which you wish you had. This might mean writing down books you wish you could study in English, or parts of History you are interested in but haven’t learned about.

Tip: If you’re not sure what subject to write your essay in, start with your interests outside the classroom instead. Still write these down, but don’t worry too much about what subject they fit into. Afterwards, see if any of them could fit. Baking is related to Chemistry, for example, while time travel (hello sci fi) has been explored in Philosophy. It’s okay to think outside the box!

*Not that we don’t love the inspiration bunny

2. Work out what you’re interested in writing about

Once you’ve started to work out what kinds of things you like more than others, it’s time to narrow them down to discover what you really love. As a general rule, if you get bored thinking about it, other people will get bored reading it. For your Extended Essay you should find something you can’t stop thinking about.

If you have your piece of paper with all the things you’re interested in written down, start sifting through them. Cross off the things you don’t actually want to write about, and circle the things that could have potential. Feel free to go outside the things you would typically learn about in class.

Tip: A great way to do this is to combine two things you like but which don’t seem like they’d go together. Interested in theatre but want to write a History essay? What about looking into the numerous theatre companies that entertained troops during World War II?

The astute among you might notice I just linked to a Wikipedia article. Not a good source, I know! But actually it’s not a bad place to start if all you’re looking for is an idea of what’s out there. The real in-depth research comes later.

Exercise 2: Do a freestyle research binge on Google. Set a timer for an hour. Start reading about whatever catches your interest, and when something within it catches your attention, follow the link or Google it to take you wherever you want to go. There is no agenda and no rules, except to stay in your Extended Essay zone (i.e. the link can’t be to Buzzfeed or about where celebrity x went with celebrity y!). Make rough notes of the things that really hold your attention as you go along. Then, wait a week and don’t think about it. When the week is up, take a piece of paper and write down what you remember from that earlier research. Whatever stuck in your head is probably what you found interesting. Use that as a starting point.

Some tools, apps and websites that might be useful for your research:

TedTalks – plenty of great insights on all sorts of topics you might not have thought about.

Diigo – let’s you highlight, annotate and bookmark webpages.

Pocket – let’s you save articles and webpages to read or go back to later (very phone-friendly).

3. Have something original to say

If you already know exactly what you are going to say about the topic you’ve chosen, something isn’t right. There needs to be room to explore your topic and discover things you haven’t thought about. Otherwise the essay is going to be too obvious and predictable. Ultimately, you need to show that you are having your own thoughts and ideas about the topic. This means questioning your topic as much as possible, and working out the unknown elements that you will need to discover during your research.

Tip: This does not mean you should feel pressure to think of something no one has thought of before. The Extended Essay is not a groundbreaking piece of research that will alter the path of the human race. It is a way for you to explore something you are passionate about, and to express that passion in writing. The key is to feel confident that you will be able to offer your own perspective. In other words, have faith in your brain.

Exercise 3: Write down at least three questions that dig deeper into your chosen topic. These might question the effect of a variable in an experiment, or highlight a biographical detail of an author that could have affected their novel. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know the answers yet. The important thing at this point is to be asking the questions.

4. Can you picture it as an Extended Essay?

This seems like common sense, but it’s actually important to remember before you get too carried away. As you go long along keep referring back to the Extended Essay Guide to make sure your topic will fit into the guidelines. Unless it is a World Studies essay, make sure it still fits within a recognised IB subject. Check that you know the requirements for each subject, whether that is what language you need to write the essay in, or whether you need to undertake independent research.

Finally, make sure it is realistic. Some of you might want to alter the path of the human race, but the Extended Essay has to be done using the resources available to you and alongside the rest of your IB (remember my original point?). Hopefully you now know that this is perfectly doable, but there is no need to make it harder than it needs to be!

Exercise 4: Read the IBO’s Extended Essay Guide! Your school will have it to hand, so ask your IB coordinator or librarian. You don’t need to read all of it (it is loooong!), but do skim the general guidelines and read through the information for your chosen subject.

And there you have it!

If you want Lanterna’s own in-depth guide to the whole process of the Extended Essay, take a look at our Extended Essay Guide, available from our free resources page .

Read Part 3: The Research

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From setting the research question to submitting the Extended Essay, here is an easy-to-follow guide for IB EE students to follow, along with personal anecdotes with tips to apply critical thinking techniques and find success. Before I started the IB, the thing I was most worried about was the extended essay. I’m pretty sure the […]

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The extended essay is possibly the most exciting part of the IB. You get to fully nerd out on a subject that fascinates you. The endless possibilities could leave you in a state of choice paralysis! Because of that, we have thrown out a list of 25 unique EE ideas as a lifeline, so you do […]

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UPSC Essays Simplified: Structure and Flow of a good essay– the third step

How to build a 'structure and flow' in a good essay our expert takes you through the third stage of writing an essay in upsc essentials' new series. don't miss the essay exercise towards the end of the article..

How to write essays for UPSC Civil Services Exams? This is one of the most popular questions among aspirants. In UPSC Essentials’ special series UPSC Essays Simplified , we take you through various steps of writing a good essay. While there is no set formula or fixed criteria prescribed, Manas Srivastava talks to Ravi Kapoor , our expert, in this new series who guides the aspirants with a simplified framework on how to write a good essay. Don’t miss ‘The Essay Exercise’ towards the end of the article.

Ravi Kapoor focuses on the following steps of pre-writing and writing stages which will help aspirants to write a ‘good essay’.

	)
	)

Today, we will focus on Step 3.

About our Expert: Ravi Kapoor IRS (R) , has now ditched his coveted rank of deputy commissioner and has offered free quality mentorship to UPSC aspirants, drawing upon his ten years of experience to create customised and productive curriculum. Through a free mentorship programme, he integrates tailored educational materials, psychological principles, visual learning techniques, and a strong emphasis on mental well-being into his teaching skills granting aspirants a chance to learn from his expertise.

How to have a ‘Structure and Flow’ in a good essay?

Everyone knows that an essay should be broken down into an introduction, body and conclusion. But what is written inside these 3 components and HOW it is written makes the difference between an essay fetching average or excellent scores.

Structuring and flow refer to the organisation of the essay and your ideas therein.

A good structure is a way of organising information that fits well with the essay topic and the ideas you wish to present in your arguments such that the reader can make sense of the entire write-up without much effort.

Good flow refers to how your arguments and counterarguments connect from one to another such that the reader finds it logically connected and easy to comprehend.

An essay without these elements will appear to be disorganized, jargoned, hard to comprehend and overall, complicated.

Contrary to popular belief, flow and structure are not subjective writing skills that are inborn in good writers but can be learned and improved upon. What follows is a series of structuring techniques that will help you choose the best one for any essay topic you may encounter.

What are different types of structures?

1. 2 side face-off:.

This is the oldest trick in the book. While writing the body of the essay, you divide it into arguments and counterarguments. In other words, you compare one side of the debate with the other.

For example:

“Thinking is like a game; it does not begin unless there is an opposite team”

The body of the essay can be divided into 2 parts- one agreeing with the statement and one disagreeing with it as follows:

Thinking is reciprocal as thought builds on other thoughts. The Socratic method, championed by Socrates, is a testament to this idea. Socrates would go around Athens spreading knowledge by asking questions and inciting dialogue which would lead the conversationist to the point of realization about something new and profound.

Similarly, when Einstein said he was standing on the shoulders of giants, he meant that his theory of relativity was built using many ideas developed by mathematicians and physicists who came before him.

The reciprocal nature of thought helps to improve it by allowing dissent and counterarguments much like a game of chess. An example is the Case study pioneered by Harvard Business School wherein one case is debated upon in detail considering various strategies before arriving at the optimal one.

While dissent and opposition can lead to many a good idea, there are more ways for thought to develop into ideas within human consciousness. Human cognition is too complex to be restricted to one mode of thinking. A Case in point is intuitive or creative thinking that can arise spontaneously without the interlocking of two human intelligences.

For instance, creative geniuses often hit upon their best ideas out of the blue in ‘Eureka’ moments that seem to arise from within the subconscious mind without the presence of an opponent.

Another example is ‘thought-experiments’ used by philosophers that are designed to be introspective exercises that one engages with, with oneself. Thought experiments are indispensable tools for philosophers and physicists to offer insight into a profound problem of logic and metaphysics.

2.Dimensional analysis:

It has become fashionable to break the essay topic into various dimensions such as Social, Cultural, Historical, Economic etc. But this is not a one-size-fits-all method and may or may not work with every essay topic.

“Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in the school…”

While this topic can be written about based on various dimensions such as economic, historical, social etc, it is not necessarily the best structure for it.

Instead, a better way to present the information in this essay topic would have a mix of chronology and analysis in the following way-

We are blank slates when we are born onto which society and culture leave their imprint. Through childhood and adolescence, the education system seeks to put us through a treadmill of learning, hoping for a fully functional human to emerge at the end. Sadly, the world that awaits a young adult after school is often very different from what the education system has imparted.

Memorization, exams, grades and NCERT books amount to nothing in a world driven by start-ups, ChatGPT and Social Media influencers…. Please note that the dimensions such as social, cultural and historical factors can also be mentioned in the body of the essay as supporting content ideas.

In most essay topics, these dimensions are best used to describe the reasons and impact of an issue or debate instead of as just a structure.

3. Timeline and Chronology

Some essay topics are uniquely suited for a chronological structure wherein you take the reader through a historical journey or evolution such as :

“History is a series of victories won by the scientific man over the romantic man”

This topic is about the ancient debate between rationality and idealism. To write well about it, you would have to trace the through major historical intellectual movements such as the Scientific Revolution, the Dark Ages, the Renaissance, etc. While doing so, you could mention how each stage was relevant for rational thinking versus idealism with relevant examples.

While you do so chronologically, remember to also present a balanced approach in your arguments- On every stage, you can mention how rational thinking and idealism have been in a tight relationship, but both have been an integral part of human consciousness representing creativity and logic. You may also mention how this to and fro has enriched human civilisation and led to the development of science and art.

4. Anecdotes and stories

Many students like to start their essays with an anecdote- a personal story or an imaginary one about characters highlighting the debate presented in the essay topic. While this is not a bad strategy, it requires a fair amount of creative writing ability to pull off properly. It is also important to mention that anecdotes are not the most suitable vehicle to comprehensively deal with the essay topic as not all arguments can easily fit into a personal story.

An example of a good use of anecdotal structure is:

“Not all who wander are lost”

About 2000 years ago, a wandering prince changed the world by questioning the most profound and radical assumptions about human existence. Prince Siddhartha was bathed in luxury and wanted for nothing. But when we saw the naked reality of the world and all its suffering, he could not silence his mind to the questions that we take for granted- why is there suffering and death? If suffering is inevitable then what is the point of life? Is there peace to be found or are we doomed to suffer in this life?

He wandered for years in search of answers, as lost as a soul can be. But in the end, it was his wandering that changed the world forever. When he became the Buddha, he not only found himself but saved millions of others from being lost themselves….

Anecdotes can make for good hooks or introductions to an essay but may not serve well to cover the entire body of the essay.

The Essay Exercise


	1. Use Anecdotes or historical examples in intro 2. 2 side face-offs in body of the essay 3. Balanced conclusion
	Start with comparing USSR and USA in the cold war. Preparation for nuclear war and hint at how being pre-emptive is strategic but not always a good thing.
	Argument- Counter-argument-
	Conclude by saying that we must strike a balance between preparedness and being spontaneous:

Important points to note:

You can choose which type of structure to use- there is no single best choice.
You may use more than 1 type of structure.
You may use structures for introduction, body and conclusion.

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The UPSC articles of Indian Express is now on Telegram. Join our Telegram channel- Indian Express UPSC Hub and stay updated with the latest Updates. For your answers, queries and suggestions write at manas.srivastava@ indianexpress.com .

Manas Srivastava is currently working as deputy copy editor at The Indian Express and writes for UPSC and other competitive exams related projects.

Manas Srivastava is currently working as Deputy Copy Editor with The Indian Express (digital) and majorly writes for UPSC-related projects leading a unique initiative known as UPSC Essentials. In the past, Manas has represented India at the G-20 Youth Summit in Mexico. He is a former member of the Youth Council, GOI. A two-time topper/gold medallist in History (both in graduation and post-graduation) from Delhi University, he has mentored and taught UPSC aspirants for more than four years. His diverse role in The Indian Express consists of writing, editing, anchoring/ hosting, interviewing experts, and curating and simplifying news for the benefit of students. He hosts the YouTube talk show called ‘Art and Culture with Devdutt Pattanaik’ and a LIVE series on Instagram and YouTube called ‘You Ask We Answer’.His talks on ‘How to read a newspaper’ focus on newspaper reading as an essential habit for students. His articles and videos aim at finding solutions to the general queries of students and hence he believes in being students' editor, preparing them not just for any exam but helping them to become informed citizens. This is where he makes his teaching profession meet journalism. He is also currently working on a monthly magazine for UPSC Aspirants. He is a recipient of the Dip Chand Memorial Award, the Lala Ram Mohan Prize and Prof. Papiya Ghosh Memorial Prize for academic excellence. He was also awarded the University’s Post-Graduate Scholarship for pursuing M.A. in History where he chose to specialise in Ancient India due to his keen interest in Archaeology. He has also successfully completed a Certificate course on Women’s Studies by the Women’s Studies Development Centre, DU. As a part of N.S.S in the past, Manas has worked with national and international organisations and has shown keen interest and active participation in Social Service. He has led and been a part of projects involving areas such as gender sensitisation, persons with disability, helping slum dwellers, environment, adopting our heritage programme. He has also presented a case study on ‘Psychological stress among students’ at ICSQCC- Sri Lanka. As a compere for seminars and other events he likes to keep his orating hobby alive. His interests also lie in International Relations, Governance, Social issues, Essays and poetry. ... Read More

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PDF Choosing and Narrowing an Essay Topic
Narrowing the topic . When narrowing a topic, you are actually making it more specific and easier to manage. To narrow the topic, look for a specific aspect of (or perspective on ) the topic. To test your topic, you should be able to move from the original broad topic to the narrowed topic to the specific issue to your primary research question ...
Narrowing a Topic and Developing a Research Question
Begin the research and writing process using the following tips: Research your question: Now that you have a research question, you can begin exploring possible answers to it. Your research question allows you to begin researching in a clear direction. Create a thesis statement: Once you have a clear understanding of your research question and ...
Narrowing a Topic Idea
Here are some strategies to help narrow the thematic focus of your paper: Aspect -- choose one lens through which to view the research problem, or look at just one facet of it [e.g., rather than studying the role of food in South Asian religious rituals, study the role of food in Hindu marriage ceremonies, or, the role of one particular type of ...
How to Narrow a Topic and Write a Focused Paper
Strategy #1: Be more specific. To narrow your topic, think of ways to make your topic more specific by focusing on a smaller aspect of the topic, one key component of the topic, a specific time period, or perhaps a specific location. Here's what I mean.
Guides: Research Tips and Tricks: Narrowing Your Topic Tips
Ways To Narrow Your Topic. Here are some strategies to help narrow your topic: Aspect -- choose one lens through which to view the research problem, or look at just one facet of it. e.g., rather than studying the role of food in South Asian religious rituals, explore the role of food in Hindu ceremonies or the role of one particular type of ...
2. Narrowing a Topic
Narrowing a Topic - Choosing & Using Sources: A Guide to Academic Research. 1-Research Questions. 2. Narrowing a Topic. For many students, having to start with a research question is the biggest difference between how they did research in high school and how they are required to carry out their college research projects.
Narrowing a Topic
Strategies for a topic search: Work from the general to the specific. Consider the word count or page requirements to determine how narrow your topic needs to be. The shorter the paper, the narrower the topic should be. You cannot cover all aspects of online education in a three-page essay. Note in a research notebook provocative questions that ...
Generate Topic Ideas For an Essay or Paper
Find a topic before you find an argument. You'll need to think about your topic in broad, general terms before you can narrow it down and make it more precise. Maintain momentum. Don't be critical of your ideas at this stage - it can hinder your creativity. If you think too much about the flaws in your ideas, you will lose momentum.
Selecting and Narrowing a Topic
19. Selecting and Narrowing a Topic. When you need to write something longer than a text or an email, whether it's a class assignment, a report for work, or a personal writing task, there's work to be done before you dive in and begin writing. This phase is called prewriting (even though some types of prewriting involve actual writing).
Finding and Exploring Your Topic
The University of Michigan Library Learning and Teaching Team has created an online tool to help you narrow your topic. The Goldilocker tool can be used as a stand alone/personal exercise to articulate your topic in a much more narrow fashion. It can also be used in conjunction with University of Michigan courses and classes outside of the university.
Narrowing a Topic
If you have chosen a very large topic for a research paper assignment, you need to create a feasible focus that's researchable. For example, you might write about something like the Vietnam War, specifically the economic impact of the war on the U.S. economy. If you have chosen a topic for a non-research assignment, you still need to narrow ...
How to Generate Strong Essay Topics, With 30 Topic Examples
Here are a few examples of essay topics and accompanying thesis statements: Topic: Changing the legal voting age. Thesis statement: When nations lower the legal voting age to 16, youth civic participation increases. To combat low voter turnout among young adults, the United States should reduce the voting age to 16.
PDF Narrowing a Topic and Developing a Research Question
Narrowing a Topic You may not know right away what your research question is. Gather information on the broader topic to explore new possibilities and to help narrow your topic. • Choose an interesting topic. If you're interested in your topic, chances are that others will be, too. Plus researching will be a lot more fun!
Brainstorming Strategy: Narrowing a Topic
Brainstorming is the process by which ideas are produced using techniques like concept mapping, free-writing, etc. Choosing a topic can be a difficult process when starting an assignment or writing a paper, and brainstorming can be used to choose a topic or narrow down a broad topic.Narrowing your topic is an important step in the research process. A broad, general topic makes it difficult to ...
Narrow Your Focus for a Research Paper
Another good method for narrowing your focus involves brainstorming a list of terms and questions related to your broad topic. To demonstrate, let's start with a broad subject, like unhealthy behavior as an example. Imagine that your instructor has given this subject as a writing prompt. You can make a list of somewhat-related, random nouns and ...
Research Essay
In this video, we discuss the necessary questions needed to go from a topic that interests you to a workable thesis. These basic questions can be applied to ...
Basic Reading and Writing: Cerritos College
When to Narrow a Topic. Most students will have to narrow down their topic at least a little. The first clue is that your paper needs to be narrowed is simply the length your professor wants it to be. You can't properly discuss "war" in 1,000 words, nor talk about orange rinds for 12 pages.
Narrowing a Topic
1. Narrowing a Topic. Defining your research question is a process of working from the outside in: you start with the world of all possible topics (or your assigned topic) and narrow down until you have focused your interest enough to be able to state precisely what you want to find out, instead of only what you want to "write about.".
3. Narrow Your Topic
IDS 101 - Argumentative Essay (Haller) 3. Narrow Your Topic. ... As you start to narrow this down into a topic/thesis, you'll want to continue to look for more sources. As you research, you might tweak or adjust your topic/thesis. In order to help you find more related sources about your topic, you'll want to identify keywords to help you search.
Breaking down the question
Choose one or two key aspects of the topic to focus your argument around. Focus on a few examples rather than trying to cover everything that falls under that topic. Decide on a standpoint you want to argue (this applies to specific essay questions too). Make sure your introduction explains your chosen focus aim and argument.
Narrowing down the topic
Narrowing Down The Topic. In narrowing down your topic, you should consider the following ideas: Identify and define the main elements of the topic that you have chosen and look at the different ways that they can be applied to the primary material of your essay. Pay attention to the length that the professor has assigned for the essay.
60 Essay Topics to Narrow Down Your Topic Search
Descriptive Essay Topics. The scariest moment of your life. The best moment you spent with your pet. The house where you grew up since childhood. Describe the person who inspires you the most. The live performance of your favorite musician. Your favorite dream that never came into reality.
The Extended Essay Step-by-Step Guide 2: Your Topic
It is a way for you to explore something you are passionate about, and to express that passion in writing. The key is to feel confident that you will be able to offer your own perspective. In other words, have faith in your brain. Exercise 3: Write down at least three questions that dig deeper into your chosen topic.
UPSC Essays Simplified: Structure and Flow of a good essay- the third
An essay without these elements will appear to be disorganized, jargoned, hard to comprehend and overall, complicated.. Contrary to popular belief, flow and structure are not subjective writing skills that are inborn in good writers but can be learned and improved upon. What follows is a series of structuring techniques that will help you choose the best one for any essay topic you may encounter.

Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper

Importance of Narrowing the Research Topic

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The Extended Essay Step-by-Step Guide 2: Your Topic

1. Plan Your ‘Topic Choosing Time’

2. Work out what you’re interested in writing about

3. Have something original to say

4. Can you picture it as an Extended Essay?

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