Why a good research topic is important?

Why a good research topic is important?

The main purpose of research is to inform action, to prove a theory, and contribute to developing knowledge in a field or study. This article will highlight the significance of research with the following points:

A Tool for Building Knowledge and for Facilitating Learning

Means to Understand Various Issues and Increase Public Awareness

An Aid to Business Success

A Way to Prove Lies and to Support Truths

Means to Find, Gauge, and Seize Opportunities

A Seed to Love Reading, Writing, Analyzing, and Sharing Valuable Information

Nourishment and Exercise for the Mind

What you will need to select your own topic of interest?

The ability to develop a good research topic is an important skill. An instructor may assign you a specific topic, but most often instructors require you to select your own topic of interest. When deciding on a topic, there are a few things that you will need to do:

brainstorm for ideas

choose a topic that will enable you to read and understand the literature

ensure that the topic is manageable and that material is available

make a list of key words

be flexible

define your topic as a focused research question

research and read more about your topic

formulate a thesis statement

Do the questions help generate topic ideas?

When you get an assignment where you need to choose your own topic, begin by considering topics covered in your course and textbooks/readings that fit the assignment. Then do a some background research (covered on next page) on one or more of those topics to get a a bird's eye historical view. This will not only help you narrow your focus, but equip you with the necessary vocabulary (names of people, places and things related to the topic) to search the scholarly literature.

Do you have a personal issue, problem or interest that you would like to know more about?

To illustrate Mills’s viewpoint, let’s use our sociological imaginations to understand some contemporary social problems. We will start with unemployment, which Mills himself discussed. If only a few people were unemployed, Mills wrote, we could reasonably explain their unemployment by saying they were lazy, lacked good work habits, and so forth. If so, their unemployment would be their own personal trouble. But when millions of people are out of work, unemployment is best understood as a public issue because, as Mills (Mills, 1959) put it, “the very structure of opportunities has collapsed. Both the correct statement of the problem and the range of possible solutions require us to consider the economic and political institutions of the society, and not merely the personal situation and character of a scatter of individuals.”

Where can you get “General Background Information” to be read?

As you begin your research, learning more about fields of study relevant to your focus will help you create more effective searches. The Washington University Library system owns many general and specialized encyclopedias and dictionaries that provide this background information.

Background information from general encyclopedias such as  will provide quick summaries establishing the context, vocabulary, and key people in many different fields.  You also have access to many  both online and in print.  Print resources reside in the Olin Library Reference Collection, in the Olin Stacks, and in the reference areas of the other departmental and school libraries.

How can you limit to narrow the topic? Is it important? Why?

Whether you are assigned a general issue to investigate, given a list of problems to study, or you have to identify your own topic to investigate, it is important that the scope of the research problem underpinning your study is not too broad, otherwise, it will be very difficult to adequately address the problem 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 important.

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 easily trail off into unnecessary tangents.