Selecting a research paper topic can be a difficult task. After all, you’ll be devoting a significant amount of time and effort to researching and writing this paper. You want to choose something that interests you and will help you get the grade you desire. Finding the right focus is the key to selecting a research paper topic that meets all of these criteria.
The topic of your research paper is frequently determined by the class for which you are writing. For example, if you’re taking an American history class about the US Civil War, the Civil War is your general subject area. If you’re taking a more general class, like American history, you should begin by narrowing your focus to a single general subject area, such as the American Civil War, the women’s rights movement, or prohibition.
After you’ve decided on a broad topic for your paper, you’ll need to narrow it down even more. A research paper topic should be narrow enough that you can write a well-rounded paper on it while staying within your teacher’s page limit. If your research paper is supposed to be ten pages long, choosing the entire US Civil War as your subject will drown you in facts.
Examine your class notes or textbook to narrow down your topic. Choose the topics that appeal to you the most. It might be helpful to make a list of all the interesting research paper topics you come across at this point.
When you’ve narrowed down your list to three or four topics, it’s time to narrow down your focus. Consider each subject. It should be narrow enough that you can cover it in ten pages, but not so narrow that you run out of information on page three.
Consider the following three topics about the American Civil War: Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, Civil War Art, and Civil War Causes. All of these are interesting topics, but they can be narrowed down. Consider Abraham Lincoln and the American Civil War. This is such a broad topic that entire books have been written on it. You can focus on the impact of the Gettysburg Address on the Civil War.
This research paper topic is narrow enough that ten pages will suffice. It is, however, comprehensive enough that you will have plenty of material to research. It’s everything you’d want in a research paper topic.