Narrowing the Focus of Your Research Topic

Narrowing a topic is a key step in bringing your topic into focus. A good research project must be narrowed down in order to be manageable. By locating general information about your topic in a subject specific Encyclopedia will assist you in coming up with ideas on how you might narrow that topic even more. Here are some strategies you can use to help you narrow the focus of your Topic.

I. Narrowing Your Topic by Adding a Subtopic

Taking ideas from your brainstorming Concept Map, select one of the related concepts connected to your main topic. For example:

global warming AND coral reefs. Or
sports AND concussions.

II. You can also Narrow your topic by applying a few of the old familiar question words. Like Who, What, Where, When, Why and How.

III. Narrow the Focus of Your Topic. You can employ one or more of the following techniques to narrow the focus of your topic.

Narrowing Strategy	Explanation/Description	Example
Time	Focus on a specific time period. After or since 2000, during the Iraq War, Future?	How is the U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan similar to the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War?
Place	Geographically, a specific country, region, city	What effect would legalizing marijuana in the State of California have on drug laws in other states?
Demographics	Gender, age group, occupation, ethnicity, nationality, educational attainment, species, etc.	How does the media portrayal of women affect the self-esteem of teenage girls?
Viewpoint	Social, legal, medical, economical, environmental, ethical, biological, moral, physical, psychological, philosophical, political? A viewpoint allows you to focus on a single aspect of your topic.	What psychological and/or social conditions in the military environment cause an increase in sexual assaults and rapes of female soldiers?

You can add one or more of these 4 concepts to your main topic to help you narrow its focus.

Example:

To see an example of a completed Concept Map of a topic and how that topic was Narrowed using the concepts listed above, Click Here.

Assignment:

Click Here for a copy of the Narrowing the Focus of Your Research Topic worksheet.