If your textbook has discussion questions at the end of each chapter, these can be great to comb through for potential research paper topic ideas. Look at any recommended reading your instructor has suggested—you might find ideas there as well.
Think about current events that touch on your field of study as well. For example, if you’re writing a research paper for a sociology class, you might want to write something related to race in America or the Black Lives Matter movement. Other instructors in the same department or field might also have ideas for you. Don’t be afraid to stop in during their office hours and talk or send them an email, even if you’ve never had them for a class.
If you want to walk with a friend and discuss topic ideas as you walk, that can help too. Sometimes, you’ll come up with new things when you can bounce your ideas off someone else.
People who aren’t really familiar with the general subject you’re researching can be helpful too! Because they aren’t making many assumptions, they might bring up something you’d overlooked or not thought about before.
Having a personal interest in the topic will keep you from getting bored. You’ll do better research—and write a better paper—if you’re excited about the topic itself.
Ideally, based on your background research, you’ll be able to choose one of the topics that interests you the most. If you still can’t narrow it down, keep reading! Even though you wouldn’t want to use them as sources for your actual paper, sources like Wikipedia can be excellent for getting background information about a topic.
For example, if you’ve chosen environmental regulations as a topic, you might also include keywords such as “conservation,” “pollution,” and “nature. "
Your results might also suggest other keywords you can search to find more sources. Searching for specific terminology used in articles you find often leads to other articles. Check the bibliography of any papers you find to pick up some other sources you might be able to use.
For example, suppose you decided to look at race relations in the US during the Trump administration. If you got too many results, you might narrow your results to a single US city or state. Keep in mind how long your research paper will ultimately be. For example, if there’s an entire book written on a topic you want to write a 20-page research paper on, it’s probably too broad.
For example, suppose you wanted to research the impact of a particular environmental law on your hometown, but when you did a search, you didn’t get any quality results. You might expand your search to encompass the entire state or region, rather than just your hometown.
For example, you might do an initial search and get hundreds of results back and decide your topic is too broad. Then, when you limit it, you get next to nothing and figure out you’ve narrowed it too much, so you have to broaden it a little bit again. Stay flexible and keep going until you’ve found that happy medium that you think will work for your paper.
For example, your research question might be something like “How did environmental regulations affect the living conditions of people living near paper mills?” This question covers “who” (people living near paper mills), “what” (living conditions), “where” (near paper mills), and “why” (environmental regulations).
At this point, your list is still a “working” list. You won’t necessarily use all the sources you find in your actual paper. Building a working list of sources is also helpful if you want to use a source and can’t immediately get access to it. If you have to get it through your professor or request it from another library, you have time to do so.
For example, suppose your research question is “How did environmental regulations affect the living conditions of people living near paper mills?” Your thesis might be something like: “Environmental regulations improved living conditions for people living around paper mills. " As another example, suppose your research question is “Why did hate crimes spike in the US from 2017 to 2020?” Your thesis might be: “A permissive attitude towards racial supremacy caused a spike in hate crimes in the US from 2017 to 2020. " Keep in mind, you don’t have to prove that your thesis is correct. Proving that your thesis was wrong can make for an even more compelling research paper, especially if your thesis follows conventional wisdom.
