Choosing a Topic

Choosing a topic

HOW TO DEVELOP A GOOD TOPIC

After choosing the subject for your extended essay, the next step in the research process is to define what your research is going to focus on - the topic.

At this stage you need to explore:

What are your personal interests?
what are your possible topics?
what do I know about those topics?
which words would be good search terms and keywords?
What speakers have you heard that were interesting?
What novels are you reading?
What is in your CAS portfolio?
What scientific experiments have you heard of that interest you?
Are there any historical events that have caught your imagination?
Are there any innovations, phenomena or theorems you have heard of lately

Your research topic:

Must fall into one of the approved IB categories
Must NOT be from a TOK subject area
Should be an area in which there is data and material to support your research
Should be manageable with 4,000 words within 40 hours of work.

Tips to choose a research topic:

Preliminary reading of academic journals and reputable scholarly e-resources, e.g. conference papers, essays, book chapters or journal articles (school librarian can advise on this).
Read the local newspaper/magazine and identify any issues that interest you!
Do conversations with teachers, fellow students and librarians.

Identifying Keywords

Try using these tools to help find a focus for your research and discover possible keywords to use as search terms when looking for relevant information.
See:

Carrot2 is an Open Source Search Results Clustering Engine. It can automatically organise small collections of search results, into thematic categories. You can see these results either as a tree or you can click 'visualise' to see a diagram like the one shown here. If, you were thinking of doing a project on Humanitarian NGOs, you could search for the keyword terms Humanitarian and NGOs, and it will bring up a number of related topics, such as disaster relief, faith-based and secular organisations, and IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation. You can choose one of these topics to see those relevant results. This may help you to find research topics for a subject you are interested in.

It's important to put together a search strategy that will make finding the information you need easier.
Your topic and its characteristics determines where you should look.
See: examples of choosing a good search strategy

Choose an appropriate search strategy

Breaking down a question

Try using Thesaurus.com to help you find to help find keywords for your topic.

OneLook dictionary Search will check through "21,589,880 words in 1061 dictionaries" for you!

Use Dictionary.com to find the definition and correct pronunciation of a word, its word origin and history, examples of the word's use on the Web, the British definition, and varying meaning of the word in specialised areas of study, such as medicine, science, and culture.