Whether in second or third year you might have started wondering about your final research project, deciding which topic to choose might be a draughting and overwhelming experience.
Here are some tips on how to approach this:
First its ismportnant top understand what toy can and cant do - this will save you time over ideas that a are just not feasible
It is important to have a core understanding on what research is , and what the gaps in literature are.
Consider topic restrictions
- specific data requirements - primary or secondary
- What the university encourages
- Ethical limitations - i.e. probably not children
Funnel data finding:
- starts broad → narrow → evaluate
1 General areas
- Areas of interest → however ensure this are areas you can have an open mind about
- Areas with faculty support
- Areas that might help you later on in your career
2 Narrow down
- Look at past dissertations - Scheme to important sections
→ where they ground breaking, narrow broad , how well justified for society , methods , type of data - Find gaps in literature → in lecture content and online
Gaps in literature
-
Some research papers might have a FRIN section where they address gaps in literature
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Asses weather existing research is suitable in specific context - age ethnicity , other locations etc .. and weather this could be a gap in existing research
-
Brain storm and mind map after reading the literature
→ you will end up with more refined list
- Turn topic into research question → making you find even mire specific
→ try and find 2 to 3 questions per topic
Evaluate topic ideas
- criteria
- originality
- importance
- availability of literature
- resources
- data collection capability
- adta anaylis capability
- excitement of topic
- usefulness in future of topic
From this : find your top 3 topics :
- plan reproach questions like if you where going to pitch the idea to your supervisor
- consuls with people , why , and see other POV
- pitch to supervisor
I highly recommend looking at this video for a more in depth explanation
