Starting Your Research: Topic/Research Question

Video: Kansas State University

Background information helps you: 

• Start thinking about your topic
• See the big picture
• Identify major issues
• Discover something that interests you

Use quality, professionally produced sources to familiarize yourself with the topic (not just Google and Wikipedia).

Try some of these:

Consider these questions:

Ask yourself open-ended questions to focus your topic. You don't have to answer all of the questions. Some might not apply or be helpful.

• Who: demographic focus (gender, age, ethnicity, socioeconomic status
• What: aspects and impacts of the topic (sociological, psychological, economic)     
• Where: geographic location
• When: either present day or a particular time period in the past
• Why/How/So What!: importance, significance (societal, individual)