CHOOSING YOUR TOPIC

Sometimes the hardest part of the whole process in writing a paper is choosing a topic. The first rule is simple: are you interested enough in this topic to want to learn more about it? If you aren't, it will make the research more difficult because you won't want to do it.

The second pitfall is not narrowing the topic or narrowing it too much. For example, a person wanting information on residential architecture could make the mistake of using "architecture" as the search term and get information covering all of architecture throughout history; or, a person might search for "Tucson houses in March 1989" and, as you might imagine, the results will be limited.

For more help on picking a topic, see

Brainstorming a Paper Topic from the University of Texas

Topics from Purdue University's Online Writing Lab

If you have a general idea in mind, but don't really know how to narrow it or even what options you might have, it can be useful to look at a Web Directory like Google or Yahoo! For example, you know you want to write something about planning. In Google's Web Directory, click on "Arts," then "Architecture," then "Urban Planning," and you'll see a list of categories including "Growth and Sprawl Debate" and "Urban Heat Islands." The general topic was narrowed to something specific.

Once you've chosen your topic, move on to Materials, or go back to Writing a Research Paper.

Research Methods