Are Form 8815 Topic 2024-2025

Choosing a topic and developing a research question are the first steps in the research process. In some cases, you'll be assigned a topic, but in other cases, you'll get to choose your own. Regardless of whether you choose your own topic or not, you need to ensure that your topic is focused. A focused topic is manageable and much easier to mold into a research question. If your topic is too broad, you can easily become overwhelmed and have difficulty finding relevant information for writing your paper. On the other hand, if your topic is too narrow or obscure, you may find too little information and not have enough to write a paper. Both of these circumstances can be extremely frustrating. So, how do you come up with a manageable research topic? A helpful way to add focus to your topic is to think of the four Ws associated with it: who, what, where, and when. Let's say your topic is video games. Video games is a really broad topic, so you'll want to narrow it down using the four Ws to get focused. For example, if you want to find information from within the last ten years, this will respond to the "when" aspect of your topic. The "where" aspect allows you to limit your research by location or geography. Let's say you want to focus on the USA. If you are interested in researching whether playing video games influences violent behavior, violence will fill the "what" category. The "who" aspect of your topic will allow you to identify the person or population you would like to study. Let's use children for this example. By responding to the four Ws and focusing on the specific aspects of this topic you would like to research, you can form your research question. A good...