Skip to Main Content

The Research Process: Select, Explore, Narrow, Refine, and Use: Select a topic

Learn how to search, write a thesis, and evaluate resources effectively.

Pick a topic

Click on the + symbols below to view different strategies to select a topic.

Refine a topic

Once you have a topic, it is important to narrow it down to something more focused. After all, it will be much easier to retrieve information and write about a specific points than trying to cover multiple ideas at the same time.

Some useful tips to refine your topic:

  1. Identify perspectives, opinions, or ideas: identify different perspectives about your topic. Which ones could be interesting to explore more closely? Pay attention to opinions or contradictions: do you agree or disagree with what is being said?
  2. Think like a journalist: asking questions like the 5Ws (Who, What, Where, When, Why) can be very useful identifying specific components of your topic.

The Five Ws

  Focus Example
Who? population, person, group, movement, object College students
What? discipline, focus, action

Use of social media and mental health
Where? geographic location Canada
When? time period or era Last 5 years
Why?
  • why does an event occur in a particular way?
  • why is the topic important?

Important to the class, to the field, to you

Table adapted from "Scope Your Topic" by The Claremont Colleges Library, licensed under CC BY 3.0

 

Based on the 5Ws above, we could formulate the following question:

Is social media use associated with decreased mental health of college students in Canada?

 

For more tips on refining your topic, check the tab Research questions & thesis statement.