How to Limit a Term Paper Topic

Choosing a topic is the first, and most important, step in demonstrating your understanding of a subject in a term paper. A well-defined topic will almost write itself and a poorly-limited one will overwhelm you with data or distract you from developing your central idea. Limiting your topic is essential if you are to write a worthwhile paper and communicate effectively.

Things You'll Need

• Subject
• General reference like an encyclopedia or internet

Instructions

1. State your subject. If you've been given a subject, you're ahead of the game. If not, choose something that you find interesting, like the Civil War or Earthquakes or even Quantum Mechanics.

2. Examine your subject for topics. Looks at what interests you in the subject--personalities, comparisons, history, effects in other fields. Perhaps a particular part of the subject fascinates you like the Battle of Antietam, techtonic plates or black holes.

3. Try asking questions about your topic. Once you've started asking questions about your topic, you're ready for the next step.

4. Create your thesis. When you start asking questions, you start looking for answers. Encyclopedias, websites and textbooks are fine for this step because they have lots of general information. As you look for answers, more questions are suggested. The questions you ask--and the answers you find--will lead you to a statement of your topic such as "The Battle of Antietam Caused the Confederacy's Loss of Foreign Allies" or "Wegener, Holmes and the Battle for the Acceptance of the Science of Techtonics" or even "Robert Hjellming and the Problem of V4641".

5. Start looking for information. Leave the encyclopedias on the shelf unless they have a great bibliography. It's time to read, read, read. Don't be afraid to re-form or change your topic as you gather information, but don't relax and generalize or you'll find yourself completely confused and swamped in sources and information. Change your thesis only if it helps clarify or focus your subject further.

Tips & Warnings

• If you aren't interested in your topic, your readers (or the instructor who's grading the paper) won't be interested in what you have to say.

• Information is available on almost anything today. Start in a good library, though, because a reference librarian is a term paper writer's best friend.

• If you insist on using web sources (or are limited to them), use only reliable search engines and sources that clearly are either primary sources or scholarly secondary sources.

• There are dozens of websites offering suggestions for term paper topics. Most of them also will sell you a paper on the subject. Resist the temptation to buy term papers. You learn nothing in the process (except that it's possible to avoid an education if you have the money) and your instructor knows about these websites, too. Plagiarism will earn you a worse grade than a mediocre term paper.

Resources

• Reliable search engines and sources
• Reliable search engines and sources
• Reliable search engines and sources