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How do I know if this is a good topic?

Deciding whether you have a good topic or not is not always straightforward. Your topic could be very interesting but there just isn't enough research available on that topic. This doesn't mean your topic is bad, it just means that it is not the right topic for this paper or project.

 

The best way to tell if you have a good topic is by researching your topic and realizing you are getting too many or too few results.

 

If you have too many results, and your search is bringing up mostly irrelevant sources, your topic is too general.

Here is an example of a general topic and how you can change it:

The topic of “sports journalism” is too general. You can first tell this because you can’t make a question from your topic. You will need to add a problem or question to make it less general. 

  • For example: are women athletes written about differently in sports journalism? Or, does sports journalism write equally about local teams and mainstream teams?

 

​If you are not getting any results, and your search does not have any issues like spelling errors in it, then there might not be any research on this topic yet!

 

If you are not getting a lot of results, your topic might be too specific. That means that there just hasn't been a lot of research done on that topic.

For example, your topic may be about black people in Prince Edward Island who have experienced racism working fast-food jobs, but you can’t find anything on that topic. Then, you might need to broaden your search.

  • In this case, consider losing one of your keyword terms, like focusing on islands in general instead of just Prince Edward Island. 
    • Your topic would then be about black people on islands who have experienced racism working in fast-food jobs
  • Or, you could look at BIPOC as a whole working in fast-food jobs to see if there is research on that.
    • Your topic would then be about BIPOC on Prince Edward Island who have experienced racism working in fast-food jobs
  • Or, maybe you would like to broaden to all jobs, instead of just fast-food.
    • Your topic would then be about black people on Prince Edward Island who have experienced racism working in jobs

Sometimes you will need to go through a few searches to refine your topic. Sometimes you may need to change multiple parts of your topic, depending on what research exists out there. This is a normal process! Research is not always straight-forward.

If you need help with your research topic, contact your subject librarian or your professor!