UNIT 3 CHOOSING AND SPECIFYING THE RESEARCH TOPIC The aim of this unit: • to make you think about the importance of choosing the right research topic;
• to give information on the attributes of a good research topic;
• to provide understanding of techniques for generating and refining research ideas;
• to enable you to turn research ideas into clear research objectives;
• to get you acquainted with the content of the research proposal;
• to practise in narrowing the topic to a specific subject.
FOCUS ON INFORMATION 1. Skim the text about formulating the research topic. Find an appropriate heading for each paragraph. a. the importance of theory in writing research projects
b. classification of techniques for generating research ideas
c. rational thinking techniques
d. the starting point of your research project
e. setting research objectives
f. writing a research proposal
g. creative thinking techniques
h. writing research questions
1. Before you start your research you need to have at least some idea of what you want to do. This is probably the
most difficult, and yet the most important, part of your research project. Without being clear about what you are going
to research it is difficult to plan how you are going to research it. This reminds us of a favourite quote in Alice’s Adven- tures in Wonderland. This is part of Alice’s conversation with the Cheshire Cat. In this Alice asks the Cat (Carrol, 1989:
63-64):
‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to walk from here?’
‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the Cat.
‘I don’t much care where,’ said Alice.
‘Then it doesn’t matter which way you walk,’ said the Cat.
Formulating and clarifying the research topic is the starting point of your research project. Once you are clear
about this you will be able to choose the most appropriate research strategy and data collection and analysis techniques.
2. If you have not been given an initial research idea there is a range of techniques that can be used to find and se-
lect a topic that you would like to research. They can be thought of as those that are predominantly rational thinking and those that involve more creative thinking. It is usually better to use a variety of techniques. In order to do this you
will need to have some understanding of the techniques and the ways in which they work.