DSGN 2601: Design Research Methods

Develop a topic that's just right for you!

There are a few things you can do to make sure your topic is good:

• Make sure it fits any requirements in the assignment. If your assignment requires you to write about a present-day fantasy author, don't write about J.R.R. Tolkien.
• Make sure that there are at least two different, opposing sides to your topic, if that is necessary for your assignment. It's hard to make an argument about something that everyone agrees on.
• Make sure your topic is not too broad or too narrow--see the information below for help.

It's important to have a topic that is the right scope for your assignment. When you start developing your topic, the two main problems you may run into are having a topic that is too narrow or too broad.

Your topic is probably too narrow when:

• you find very little--or nothing--written about it
• you realize you can fully cover your topic in much fewer than the required number of words or pages

Your topic is probably too broad when:

• you find too many sources or too much information--more than you could reasonably look through
• you realize you won't have enough space in your paper to cover everything about your topic that you want to cover
• you feel like your topic is pulling you in lots of different directions--it's hard to combine all of the information you are finding out about it

To narrow a topic that is too broad, try to pick one sub-topic of the topic to focus on. If you are having trouble thinking of a sub-topic, try asking yourself questions about your topic. The answers to those questions can reveal sub-topics that might offer a possible route to narrow your topic. Below are some examples of questions you can ask.

• Who is an important/notable person related to this topic?
• What is a specific type of this topic?
• When did this topic happen? When was a notable time related to this topic?
• Where did/does this topic happen? Where was/is a notable place related to this topic?
• Why does this topic happen? Why is this topic important?
• How does this topic happen? How do people work towards/against this topic?

For example, if your broad topic is the depiction of time travel in popular culture, you could ask yourself who a notable person related to this topic is. Your answer might be the fictional character of The Doctor, from the TV show Doctor Who. This gives you a narrower focus for your topic. Instead of writing about the depiction of time travel in all of popular culture, you can write just about one TV show.

To broaden a topic is too narrow, use this strategy in the reverse. Try to come up with broader categories into which your topic fits, and then choose one of those categories as your topic. For example, if your narrow topic is the Doctor Who episode "Blink," broader categories could be women in science fiction TV or David Tennant's portrayal of The Doctor.

Topic too big?  Below are some hints for narrowing your topic:

• Population group: Narrow by age, race, sex, occupation, etc.  
• Geography: Narrow by geographical location.  
• Time period: Narrow time period.  
• Discipline: Narrow by looking through a specific discipline, for example: How does insomnia affect memory? (Psychology) OR What prescription drugs can assist patients with insomnia and how do they work? (Pharmacy)

Topic too narrow?  Not finding research resources?  Try the following:

• Go BIG! Your topic may be too specific.  For example if your topic is first year female college students and stress, broaden to college students and stress.
• Think of similar or parallel topics
• Keywords - go back and brainstorm more keywords for searching.  You may just need to find the specific terms that refer to your topic.  
• Rethink your topic - Sometimes your topic may be too new and there may be very little scholarly research published on your topic yet.