Choosing a Research Topic: Key Considerations and Strategies
insights on choosing a research topic effectively, including gathering opinions, evaluating relevance, and avoiding common pitfalls. Discover ways to stay innovative, manageability, budget-friendly, and data accessibility while selecting a topic that aligns with future trends.
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Presentation Transcript
Choosing a topic and designing the research 1. Choosing a topic Munirah Osman-Hyder UKZN School of Law
Choosing the topic Inspiration ? Rare! Read, talk and write: thinking is work Not the first which comes in mind remove yourself from your environment dare to be different beware of religious convictions not too small, not too large You yourself are not interesting
Hints Gather contradicting opinions on your topic choose 3 - 5 initially listen to good advice do not commit yourself too quickly make a topic file
What is unthinkable? Political correctness What topics are off the list? In your field In your country What topics will be important 5 years from now: guesstimate Shoot at the moon
Ways to choose Professional interest Peers: colleagues, faculty, students Library! Recent dissertations Current theory Internet Seminars, conferences Observations in society
How did you prepare yourself before choosing? Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with preparation Anon. Read state of the art overviews (Annual Review of ), Yearbook of Select interesting journals and browse match social awareness with reading
Dinner table Why is your topic interesting? Explain in three minutes why you have the most interesting topic possible.
Beware of . Evaluation studies Close-to-home topics: back yard Imitation instead of replication Easy subjects Own position in the empirical field Pet topics of professors
Criteria for evaluation Has to remain interesting Manageable Potentially innovative Within budget Data obtainable Under-researched Acceptable for supervision team
Criteria 2 Puzzle solving? Model building? Program writing? Data gathering? Leads to underlying processes! Has theoretical potential! Part of a scholarly debate! International problem
Now, what did you think your topic was? At the start Developed since? Any doubts? Nobody gets it right the first time So, if you did not reformulate it, it is not right yet! How are you going to reformulate it?
Why do you feel comfortable with your topic? Familiar? Set it in a different country in another continent! What do you have to reformulate? Would it add to your research to include another setting? Then try to do so!
Exercise Problem tree exercise: Students to set out problem in the form of a tree: 1. What is the trunk problem? 2. What are the root problems? 3. What are the branch problems?
