Finding Focus

Developing a Subject, Topic, and Guiding Question

Finding focus for your research can be difficult and is process all on its own. ​Be prepared to alter and refine your focus as you gather more information. ​Below is a general progression for finding focus.

Understanding Assignment Guidelines

  • Start by understanding the assignment, making sure to address your teacher's guidelines and requirements.

Selecting a Subject

  • Explore options and select a subject that interests you! Since you will be spending a lot of time researching, pick something that you want to learn about.
  • ​Start with Google or Wikipedia to gain general information about the subject. At this point, you are building a context for understanding your subject and identifying possible topics.
  • As you do initial information gathering, note related "keyword" terms for use in later searches. 

Identifying a Focused Topic

  • ​Make sure that your topic isn't too specific or too vague. If the topic is too broad, you will be overwhelmed with information. If the topic is too narrow, you may not be able to find enough information for your research paper.

Creating Research Guiding Questions

  • ​A guiding - or essential - question will direct your research and should clearly communicate the focus of your research. Guiding questions explain what you are hoping to find out.
  • Guiding questions should be "open." This means they cannot be answered with a simple "yes" or "no" or single Google search.
  • A good guiding question pushes you to search for deeper meaning and results in you creating an original response.
  • Below are slides with prompts to help you create guiding questions for your research.