An Introduction to Research Processes

Often, although not always, your instructor will allow you to choose the topic for your research writing assignment. This kind of freedom comes with a price, however. If you don’t spend time thinking carefully about topics you’d like to research, you may end up deciding midway through your research project that you’ve chosen the wrong topic. It may be too broad; it may be too narrow; it may be impossible to locate useful sources for your project.

It’s usually best to select a topic that interests you and, ideally, your audience. To generate ideas for a research writing assignment, consider the following questions:

• Can you recall an experience from your work or leisure, from your travel or life as a student, that raises interesting questions or creates unusual associations in your mind?
• What have you observed recently — perhaps on your way to school or work today, or while running errands — that you could more thoroughly investigate with the aid of books, magazines, the Internet, and field research?
• What have you recently read, whether for a course or for pleasure, that has left you still wondering?
• In recent conversation with friends or in class discussions, have you encountered any new perspectives that you'd care to explore?
• Can you imagine a solution to a frustration, obstacle, or problem that plagues you?