Once you understand your assignment requirements, you can start thinking about your topic.
In some cases, your research paper's topic will already have been assigned to you or you will be required to pick from a list of topics. In other cases, you may have the opportunity to choose your topic that fits within the course subject matter.
In both situations, there is usually some choice for the direction you take your paper.
Also, keep in mind that depending on the type of paper you need to write not all topics will work (click here for more information about paper types).
It is also important to remember that it might take several tries to settle on a topic.
Therefore, after selecting a preliminary topic, test your topic by doing some initial research in a database.
If you don't find any research, you may need to adjust your topic by expanding the topic, searching again and then modifying it until you have success.
One technique is to ask yourself some questions to generate topic ideas.
Another technique is to think about the types of sources you need. Ask yourself some or all of these questions.
The types of sources you need for your project will also impact the topic you can choose.
For example, if you are writing on a topic that requires peer-reviewed sources, you might not be able write about a current topic.
On the other hand, if you can only use popular sources or newspapers published in the last year, your topic will need to be very current.
Another technique is to do some background research within your field or the general topic of interest.
There are a couple of methods for background research...
