Focussing on a Topic

In some subject areas you will simply sign up for a topic of research that interests you from a designated list of lecturers and their areas of expertise.

In other subject areas, you will not only be invited to choose a topic that interests you, but expected to define your own research question, which will become your dissertation title.

It is likely that your initial choice of title/topic may change after you have worked out what is manageable and feasible in the time available.

• Formulate some exploratory questions that you would like to address.
• Develop and clarify these questions after further reading and through discussion with colleagues and your supervisor.
• Consider how you are going to approach the research required to answer your question, i.e. what will be your methodology? Will you be examining secondary evidence (data sets, census reports, films etc) or collecting your own data (conducting field research, or interviews with participants, for example)? Does this way of workng play to your strengths?

It is essential that your research question is clearly focussed and precisely phrased: answering it must be achievable in the time available to you.

Before settling on a question – ask yourself:

• "Will it keep me interested for a long period?"
• "Can I answer it with the time and resources I have?"
• "Is there someone who can supervise me and can I get on with them?"
• "Do I have some idea of how to go about answering it?"