NARROWING YOUR TOPIC FOR THE RESEARCH PAPER
The word "research" suggests a retrospective point of view, a
"re-search" or looking back. Most original research on a specific
topic, however, is really searching for the first time. It is to a general
subject or field that we return each time we do research. Here are some
broad fields of study of the kind you might be assigned to "re-search."
Folklore
Health and Medicine
Nineteenth-century American History
American Literature
Jurisprudence
Obviously such general fields are far too vast to be covered by a paper
written in a single term. They need to be restricted drastically.
What particular aspects of health and medicine would you like to investigate?
Which specific periods or events do you find most intriguing within the
wide range of nineteenth-century American history? Among the pantheon of
American writers, whose work in particular do you want to learn more about?
Are you most interested in that person's fiction, poetry, or literary criticism?
Such questions can help you turn a research field into a research "topic."
Like a field of study, a topic is, historically, a place to look
for ideas. But even a good topic comprises a much smaller region than a
whole field. Even if we narrow our sample fields as follows, they are still
too broad to be manageable topics:
Folklore/Folklore in a technological culture
Health and Medicine/AIDS
Nineteenth-century American history/The Civil War
American literature/Henry James
Jurisprudence/Constitutional Law
We're making progress, but our "topics" need to be restricted
further:
Folklore in a technological society/Urban legends
AIDS/AIDS and hetrosexuals
The Civil War/The Confederacy
Henry James/Henry James's ghost stories
Constitutional law/The First Amendment
And further:
Urban legends/Dates and dangers
AIDS and heterosexuals/AIDS and heterosexual women
The Confederacy/The Confederate White House
James's ghost stories/The Turn of the Screw
The First Amendment/Obscenity and the law
And still further:
Dates and dangers/versions of the "man with the hook"
AIDS and heterosexual women/Transmission of AIDS in heterosexual women
The Confederate White House/Preserving the Confederate White House
The Turn of the Screw/Point of view in The Turn of the Screw
Obscenity and the law/Obscenity and the Supreme Court
Our sample topics are now narrow enough to be covered decently in a term
rather than in a lifetime, but here's something else to think about as you
search for a good research topic: a topic is just a restricted field of
study; eventually you will have to come up with a thesis about that
topic. For most research papers are simply thesis-and support writing.
There are basically two ways to go about developing a viable thesis for
a research project. The first is to begin with a hypothesis (pr trial thesis)
and use it as a principle of selection while you do your research on your
topic. The second way is to formulate your thesis as an outgrowth
of your research.
BEGINNING WITH A HYPOTHESIS
This first method works best, obviously, when you know your subject
pretty well beforehand. For example, if for an English class you are writing
a paper about an author whose works you have already read, you may wish
to formulate a working thesis-or hypothesis-before going to the library
to learn more about the author's life, the milieu in which he or she lived,
and the opinions of other critics on your topic. If you are familiar with
Henry James's The Turn of the Screw, for example, and strongly suspect
that the governess is insane, your working thesis would be something like
this: "The ghosts in The Turn of the Screw are figments of a
hysterical woman's inflamed imagination."
As a hypothesis develops into a viable thesis, it can change, grow, wither,
and grow again. So be flexible. As you do research, be ready to modify your
thesis, to adapt it to the new evidence you are uncovering, even to throw
it out completely and start over. Imagine that you have chosen the "Transmission
of AIDS in heterosexual women" as your research topic. Perhaps you
strongly believe that the incidence of AIDS among heterosexual women is
high, and you begin research armed with a thesis reflecting this belief:
"AIDS poses a serious threat to the heterosexual woman." What
will you do if your research disproves your hypothesis? You could cite only
data that backs up your theory, but doing so would be dishonest (as well
as difficult). You'd be much better off changing your thesis: "In spite
of the growing fear of AIDS among heterosexual women, recent studies suggest
their risk of actually contracting the disease is minimal."
THE THESIS IS AN OUTGROWTH OF RESEARCH
The writer who begins with a general interest in a subject but really
knows little about it must look for a thesis as he or she goes along. Suppose
you have recently learned that Richmomond, Virginia, was the capital of
the Confederacy during the Civil War, and that President Jefferson Davis's
residence is a historical monument currently known as the White House of
the Confederacy. You like history, you're interested in old buildings, and
the topic intrigues you; but youreally have little to say about it because
your knowledge of your topic is minimal. Instead of formulating an empty
thesis such as "The White House of the Confederacy is very interesting,"
you need to dig a little deeper.
Such an important historical edifice, you assume, has been perfectly preserved,
just as Davis left it, ever since the Civil War. You begin your research
by looking at a tourist booklet about the building, and you're astonished
to find this is not the case. The house was allowed to fall into disrepair
after the war, was nearly torn down in 1889, and only began to be restored
in the 1970s, a century after the Davis family fled.
You go to the library (the archives of the Richmond Historical Society would
be ideal), and you discover that the structure was used for various purposes-as
a Union Army headquarters, as a public school, as a museum-and that attempts
to fireproof the building resulted in the removal of many important architectural
features. You also learn about the financial difficulties of preservationists
who have tried to restore the landmark, and you find that only recently
has an attempt been made to replicate the original furnishings. Once you
have gathered such information about your topic, you are in a better position
to formulate a thesis (subject to modification), which you might state to
yourself thus: "The history of the White House of the Confederacy is
a history of neglect, benign destruction, and valiant efforts to preserve
an important national landmark.
THESIS AS GRAB-BAG (working back to your thesis)
This technique for finding a thesis is particularly useful for those
who want to get started, but don't know where. It is also particularly useful
for those people who want to to be led to a topic for the purpose of personal
growth or enrichment. With this technique, the information finds you, you
don't find the information (at least initially).
Browse a section of the library that you might have a passing interest in.
Browse the current periodicals. Browse the new books that have just come
in. Pick up three or four books and skim them for possible topics. Read
a chapter a little more thoroughly. When you find a subject that interests
you, track down other articles or books in the bibliography (magazine articles
in professional magazines are usually very good for providing a detailed
list of alternate sources).
Now you will need some expertise in tracking down materials in the library. Begin collecting source material. Photocopy where necessary, always noting the information which will be necessary for your bibliography (the most outstanding source material is absolutely no good if you can not make reference to it-backtracking to find the same volume just wastes time) As you collect your information, let the information that you find shape the content of your paper.
Finally, after assembling what you think is a satisfactory amount of
material for the length of your paper, begin to weed out what is not useful
based on what you think is the most interesting and most relevant material.
Try to come up with two or three main subheadings. From these subheadings,
you should be able to find a point where all three come together, the critical
point of coherence. Your thesis topic should just fall out of that. In this
way you are working your way back to your thesis statement.
For example, let's say you pick up a book on jazz legend Keith Jarrett.
You become aware of his beginnings with the Charles Lloyd Quartet, his apprenticeship
with Miles Davis, his solo concerts in Bremen, Köln and Lausanne (each
of which could be subheadings if you could find enough information on them),
his European group called Belonging which featured Jan Garbarek, his forays
into classical music covering Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier and
his composition of a piano concerto, and, finally, his American trio with
Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette. After listening to some of the music and
tracking down some articles you find one good article by Roman Kowal in
Jazz Forum about the European group, another good article about the
solo concerts by Michael Zwerin in the International Herald Tribune
entitled "10 sides of Keith Jarrett-And All Solo Piano" and two
more good articles about the American trio in Musician, one by David
Breskin, the other by Conrad Silvert.
Then, in a Downbeat article by Bob Palmer entitled "the Inner
Octaves of Keith Jarrett" you unearth an interesting detail about how
Keith Jarrett believes his music is coming from some kind of supernatural
force, a deity. You find out Jarrett believes that some kind of god is playing
through him, improvising through him at all times while he is playing. You
look back on the other articles and see his references to this. Finally,
you arrive at your thesis: "Keith Jarrett's mediumship while playing
piano during his solo work in Europe, while playing with the American trio
and with the European group, varies from the sublime to the enigmatic to
the ethereal."
Remember, your paper should contain just as much information as is necessary
for the length of your paper. The main advantage of using the grab-bag technique
is that you don't waste time in the beginning looking for materials that
may not exist or that you may not have access to. The sorting and selecting
of source material becomes an integral part of shaping your paper. The great
drawback of this technique is that you must not allow the connection between
your subheading material to become so strained that the connection is tenuous.
However you go about finding a thesis for your research paper, you must
gather sufficientdata to support it. Among the usual ways to amass data
are Observation, Questioning and Reading.
Observation. Observation is a research strategy especially suited to the
social and behavioral sciences. Of course, all observation is colored by
how you look, but you could amass data by watching adults interact with
children at the mall or by watching gorillas in a zoo. Be methodical and
try to design your experiments in accordance with accepted professional
standards. Try to keep your experimental error to a minimum.
Questioning. Conduct a survey or a series of lengthy interviews. Again,
be as rigorous as possible. Try to adhere to the framework of your set of
questions.
Reading. Reading is nearly imperative for any paper. It will allow you to
become more familiar with whatever subject you choose and it will introduce
you to how the subject you have chosen ahas been approached in the past.
You may choose to model your paper after someone else's research or you
may choose to venture out on your own. Good library skills are an absolute
must for writing a thoroughly-researched research paper.
THESIS-AND-SUPPORT WRITING
Informative writing "explains" by setting forth what logicians
call an "explandum" meaning in Latin "that which is to be
explained"-plus a "hypothesis" that accounts for the explandum.
Often your thesis will come in a topic sentence in the opening paragraph
of a discourse, and most of the rest will explain why you say it's
true (your hypothesis). Almost as often, however, your main contention will
appear in the second, third, even the final paragraph (a "delayed thesis").
Or it will be stated partially in more than one place (a "scattered
thesis"). The difference between the subject of an essay (a field of
inquiry) and a thesis (a proposition about that subject) is suggested is
suggested by the following list:
TOPIC THESIS
·The decline of heroism in America ·America no longer produces
heroes.
·The private life of a minor league pitcher ·The private life
of a minor league pitcher is far from glamorous.
·The effect upon a marriage of the birth · The birth of a
child destroys some mariiages.
of a child
·Panspermia ·Life on earth came from outer space.
Notice that each thesis, or proposition, in the right-hand column makes
a complete sentence. The subject of discourse is named in the subject of
the sentence. The predication (or assertion about it) occurs in the "predicate"
of the sentence, the part made up of the verb, its complements and modifiers.
A good thesis restricts to manageable limits the territory its hypothesis
must encompass.