Introduction
At master’s level it’s common to have a dissertation or major project to complete as part of your course. Usually you’ll be able to choose your own question for such tasks, meaning that it’s a great opportunity to do some in-depth work in an area of particular interest to you.
This page will explore how to choose a topic and how to refine that initial choice down into a realistic dissertation or project question.
Criteria for selecting a topic
Most people will approach a major project or dissertation with some idea of what they’d like to do. But how do you know if it’s a suitable idea for a task of this length? And how do you choose between several different ideas, if you find yourself in that fortunate position? Use the checklist below to assess the suitability of your idea(s).
INTEREST – perhaps an obvious one, but you need to select a topic that’s going to keep you interested over a sustained period of time. Losing interest in a topic can lead to procrastination, a lack of motivation and, ultimately, a poor piece of work
NOT TOO BROAD – in all likelihood you’ll start out with a topic that’s too broad – this can leave you covering too wide a field, leading to unfocused research and a lack of critical depth in the finished work
NOT TOO NARROW – conversely, a topic can be too specific (although this is a much less common issue), in which case the research and the work you submit can be limited in scope
ORIGINAL – you need to have something original to say or do. Simply demonstrating knowledge and understanding of a particular topic isn’t enough at this stage. You need to be doing something more critical. Think ‘so what?’ – why does what you’re proposing to do matter?
ACHIEVABLE – you have to give yourself a realistic chance of completing the task within the deadline. You may have the perfect idea for a topic but how practical is it? For example, how easy is it going to be to get your hands on the resources you’ll need?
YOUR FUTURE PLANS- this one is often missed, but a big project such as this offers you a great opportunity to undertake some focused research in an area that might add to your future employability or even lead on to PhD research.
OTHER – these are some of the main things to think about but there may be many other considerations depending on the specific circumstances. Maybe you can think of some other criteria that are important to you?
Refining the Question
Most people begin with a general idea of an area they’d like to research but, as we’ve seen, one of the big dangers is embarking on research with an idea that’s too broad and vaguely defined.
At best, it means you’ll spend a lot of time researching areas that won’t make it into the final work. All too often though, you’ll find yourself trying to cover too many of these areas, resulting in a final submission that is too general and lacking in criticality.
The first key step then is to shape the topic before you begin the research process. This will allow you to take a focused approach to both that research and the writing itself. So here’s a simple model that you can use to road test your ideas and make your topic more focused and critical…
Let’s take a look at each of these elements in turn:
TOPIC – your likely starting point, but often too broad and wide ranging to make a suitable dissertation or project topic without some refining.
FOCUS – what specific aspect of your chosen topic do you wish to focus on?
RESTRICTION(S) – what restrictions or limitations are you setting for yourself? A good way of narrowing down and refining a topic, restrictions are often geographical (focusing on one particular country, or comparing/contrasting two specific countries) or temporal (e.g. focusing on a specific time period) but many other types of restriction can be used.
INSTRUCTION – what is it you’re actually proposing to ‘do’ with the topic (e.g. are you comparing and contrasting, analysing, critiquing, evaluating?) This is the element that will give your dissertation its critical focus.
Breaking the question or topic down like this is a good way of ensuring you have a topic that meets the criteria we identified earlier. It also helps ensure you don’t waste time at the outset by casting your research net too wide.
Example
Let’s take a look at an example of how this process might work in practice (note the example which follows is for illustration purposes only and is not necessarily a valid dissertation topic):
“I want to do something on social media.”
Ok, you have a topic but that’s about it. If you were to start a literature review with just the topic ‘social media’ you would be overwhelmed, and if you did manage to produce a dissertation or project it would be far too broad. Can you be a bit more specific? What’s your focus?
“All right, I want to look at whether social media can be used as a design tool.”
A bit better – at least we now have an angle or focus. But it’s probably still too broad. Could you apply a restriction to help you focus in a little more?
“Ok, well I guess I’ve become pretty interested in how I’ve been using social media as a design tool over the last few years, so I suppose I’m focusing on higher education?”
Much better! Now you’ve refined the topic down from something very broad to something that’s much more focused and critical. One more step. What is it you actually propose to do with the question? You’ve said earlier you wanted to look at whether it could be used as a design tool – does this give you a clue?
“Well, I suppose it means I want to come to some sort of judgement about whether or not social media can be used as a design tool in higher education. So I guess I’m evaluating its effectiveness?”
And now you have a suitable, well-defined, carefully thought out question that is not too broad, not too narrow, and which invites critical engagement with the subject and the secondary literature.
Evaluate the effectiveness of social media as a design tool in higher education.
Summing Up
The question that you start researching can go a long way towards determining the final success of your dissertation or project. Clearly defining and refining your question helps you to focus your research and stay on topic with the writing itself, as well as hopefully ensuring that your work is suitably critical. So don’t just dive in – take some time to go through the process outlined here and you’ll lay strong foundations for a successful piece of work.
