Selecting a Topic
Refining Your Topic
At this point you should have a better idea of the background and subjects included in your topic. If you need to refine your topic, your background search should have given you some idea about how you want to focus your research.
The best research papers have a good focus. If your background research reveals that there is not enough information on your topic, you may need to broaden or modify your focus. On the other hand, if you discover that you have too much material, it may be necessary to narrow your focus. For example, it would be impossible to write about "World War II" in a five page paper; you need to narrow the subject down a bit. One way to narrow a topic is to write a thesis statement.
A thesis statement is a sentence or paragraph that describes your point of view about the topic and the ideas you plan to demonstrate or prove through your research. Here is a thesis statement example:
Military dogs performed an important search-and-rescue function for both Allied and Axis forces during WWII. Although dogs were also used to identify explosives, their use in finding injured soldiers was more prevalent.
This thesis statement demonstrates that the writer will be finding information on and writing about search-and-rescue dogs used during World War II.