A dissertation topic is a subject that you explore in your paper. It guides the issues that you will discuss in response to the research questions that engage with a problem. Many times it is their students who decide on the topic as their professors want to find something that they can investigate and write the findings in a reader engaging manner.
Approaches to Choosing a Topic
Choosing a topic can be tough if you have many ideas, or you do not have one concrete subject to discuss. The following approaches to choosing a topic will help in narrowing down your choice to the most appropriate.
Determine your interests: start by identifying a subject in your area of knowledge that your fund exciting than others. You can draw inspiration from your preferred activities, places you visit, and subject that inspire you at school. Choose broad subject areas where you feel you got knowledge and experience.
Consider the interests of your audience: A dissertation is about you but find a topic that is not too away from the mark in terms of the thing that your audience can like. The readers will have more interest in your paper when you write about something that gets their enthusiasm. For example, it is wise to pick a topic on healthy eating habits if your readership comprises of dieticians.
Study the relevant literature: review the available literature to determine if your topic has adequate and current sources of information. The information must have reliable facts that will help in supporting arguments as a dissertation should not just make claims without support. Research sources should have relevant research statistics and of academic interest.
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Get views of your advisor: Consult your dissertation after settling for a topic. The advisor will help you to determine if the subject is appropriate, cover enough ground, and adds knowledge to the field. You will also get any other professional assistance you require about a topic.
Where to Look for Potential Topics
Dissertation topics do not emerge without an effort. You must determine where to look for potential topics and narrow down to the most suitable.
- Professional interests: think about issues that excite you and career goals that a particular topic will enhance.
- Suggestions by members of your faculty, colleagues, librarians, and fellow students.
- Journals in your field: Journals contain trending topic ideas for now and coming days
- Dissertations. Order for past dissertations relating to your area of study from reliable publishers and review them for potential gaps in knowledge. Chapter 5 of many dissertations is rich with potential topics as it presents recommendations for future research.
- Discussions during oral defense of a dissertation are a source for potential topics. Make a point of attending several.
- The internet: The internet has many sources of information, including websites publishing scholarly information.
- New theories that are emerging in your field or those that have been in place but raise questions.
- Professional research organizations and agencies
- Conference and seminars
- Leading scholars in your academic areas of interest. Many researchers and authors are ready to share information if you have an interest in their ideas or research. They also advise on potential topics.
- References in your field: there are many bibliographies and handbooks, so you should find those belonging to your subject area.
- Current job setting: y can turn problems that require a solution at your workplace to a topic for your dissertation. Your effort to solve the issue will form materials for your project. However, the issue should be on something you find interesting, or you will have difficulties in conducting research.
Write your topic to help crystallize and organize your understanding
You crystallize and organize your dissertation ideas by separating the main points into paragraphs. Separation of ideas in different paragraphs helps readers to grasp the cumulative effects of the evidence you are presenting for your claim.
Write your topic to help crystallize and organize your understanding by following a logical order. The framework does not confuse readers because the presentation is in a way that allows an understanding of a point before shifting to another. Use the best topic sentence at the start of a paragraph to capture the attention of the reader.
A topic sentence is the first in s paragraph and introduces the argument in the subsequent sentences to the audience. Provide readers with expectations when starting a paragraph. You help them to understand and maintain track of the overall structure of the argument.
Let each argument be self-contained in a paragraph without mix up with others. Start the paragraph with a claim in a topic sentence. Present the evidence, reasoning, and conclusion about the claim in the body of your paragraph. Make a connection of the argument in the last sentence to another in the subsequent paragraph.
Stick with the claim in the topic sentence and let another sentence to address evidence and provide an example. Your topic should be specific enough for the reader to understand your point without ambiguity. Your topic might be “math is difficult,” but you must specify the reasons for your claim and reveal who find it hard to study.
Use discursive writing at length that makes arguments rather than report. A discussion leads to informed and lively discussions since it enables the audience to determine the justification for your topic. You can also defend your claims and research methods.
Some criteria for topic selection
You must have great insight when choosing a topic for it not to become a burden halfway in the writing process. Note the topics that you find interesting in your studies and settle for the one that you can handle in the best way. Apart from interest, below are some criteria for topic selection. Question the relevance of the topic and the consequences for the route you want your dissertation to take. Refine the angle to take for it to fit your methodology, theory, and data analysis.
- Evaluate the feasibility. Your topic must be within the limits that you can with the time frame you set for completion. Determine if you have adequate time for conducting research, collecting data, and analyzing it. The topic must also generate enough information to reach your word count.
- Questions that you want you to want the topic to answer. The scope of your topic should not be too broad for you to reach a reasonable conclusion within the word count. Pick a topic with enough relevant literature for it not to be about answering yes or no questions.
- Influence of the work. The topic should make an impact on your academic field, especially for a degree in Arts, Humanities, and Social sciences. The influence you want to make determines the areas you research and any questions you ask interviewees.
The criteria for a good dissertation topic determine the impact it will make in your academic field and the grade you will achieve. It is difficult to have a completely new idea but take time to find a fresh take for your paper.