When your instructor permits you to create your own topic for a research and writing assignment, keep these tips in mind:
For more information, see UMGC's Online Guide to Writing and Research: Doing Exploratory Research.
The following figure gives some ideas for how to progress from a general topic to a research question to a thesis statement.
|
General Topic |
Research Question |
Thesis Statement |
---|---|---|---|
Definition |
The assignment your instructor provides, or the general area or issue in which you are interested |
The question a researcher asks that guides his or her inquiry into a topic |
A summary statement of the writer's main point |
Example |
Female managers in the workplace |
How do female managers' work-life balance decisions affect their opportunities to be promoted to upper-level management positions inFortune 500 IT companies? |
Female managers encounter a glass ceiling in upper-level management positions inFortune 500 IT companies. |
Narrowing your topic is often the most difficult aspect of formulating a research question. The figure below gives further tips on how to focus your topic.
Broad Topic: Female Managers |
|||
---|---|---|---|
|
Limit by Location |
Limit by Type of Company |
Limit by Time Period |
Narrowed |
Female managers in Asia |
Female managers in Fortune500 companies |
Female managers in the twentieth century |
Further |
Female managers in Japan |
Female managers in Fortune500 IT companies |
Female managers in the 1990s |
Research |
How is the promotion of women to positions in upper management in IT companies in Japan different from that in the United States? |
How do female managers' work-life balance decisions affect their opportunities to be promoted to upper-level management positions inFortune 500 IT companies? |
How did the promotional opportunities and job experiences of female managers differ from those of male managers in the mid-1990s? |