7.3 Refining Your Topic

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Narrowing, Broadening, & Revising

After generating ideas and gathering background information, it can still be tricky to strike the right balance with your research topic.

Please watch the following 3-minute video for an illustration of the often challenging process of developing an effective research topic that is not too broad or too narrow.

• Pay particular attention to the concept of a cyclical, rather than linear process for choosing a research topic.
• After viewing the video, you should have a much better idea of how to choose an appropriate research topic, and also how to narrow or broaden the topic based on initial background research.

Additional viewing options: Turn on closed captions with the "CC" button, or use the text transcript if you prefer to read.

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"Picking Your Topic IS Research! Links to an external site." by NCSU Libraries Links to an external site. is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 Links to an external site.