INQUIRIES,

INVESTIGATIONS,
AND
IMMERSION
CHOOSING A RESEARCH
TOPIC
DEVELOPING A TOPIC FOR
RESEARCH
Big numbers catch your audience’s attention
 DEVELOPING A TOPIC FOR RESEARCH
➢ Before conducting research, you
should have a topic to pursue.
➢ A topic is the subject or subject
matter of a proposed research
study.
➢ It is then important to know the
guidelines for choosing a research
topic.
 DEVELOPING A TOPIC FOR RESEARCH
➢ For a beginning researcher, it is
important to choose a topic that
interests him or her.
➢ The topic or subject must be
worth investigating.
➢ The following are some preliminary
questions to ask in choosing a topic
for research.
 Questions To Ask In Choosing A Topic For Research
1. What topic/s for research
interests me?
2. What is it about the topic that
I chose that is interesting to
me?
3. What do I know about the
topic that interests me?
 DELIMITING THE
01 TOPIC
 DELIMITING THE TOPIC
➢ Once you have decided on a topic,
you have to limit its scope or
coverage.
➢ Here are some important things
that you must consider in
developing a suitable topic for
research.
 DELIMITING THE TOPIC
1. Persons or categories of people to be studied
➢ As a researcher, you must clearly answer
the question, "Who are the persons that I
want to study?"
➢ In social science research, it is important
to identify the subgroups or categories of
people to be studied.
➢ Individual persons and groups like a
community or a social organization can be
the focus of a study.
 DELIMITING THE TOPIC
1. Persons or categories of people to be studied
➢ In practice, social scientists do not study
all kinds of people because it is impossible
to study and research about all sectors of
the population.
➢ Most of the time, social research focuses
on a specific group of people or sector of
society in a specific geographic location.
 DELIMITING THE TOPIC
1. Persons or categories of people to be studied
➢ Examples of specific categories of people
are students, parents, teachers,
homosexuals, single mothers, and senior
citizens geographically located in a
specific area.
 DELIMITING THE TOPIC
1. Persons or categories of people to be studied
➢ Other possible groups are gangs,
fraternities, and the like; larger groups
like formal social organizations, business
corporations, church organizations,
colleges or universities, and military
organizations.
 DELIMITING THE TOPIC
2. Place of the study
➢ A researcher must answer the question,
"Where is the specific geographical
location of study?" to limit the scope of
the research.
➢ It is difficult to research on a topic that
has a very broad geographic scope
because it would need more time, data,
and resources.
 DELIMITING THE TOPIC
2. Place of the study
➢ The geographical location or place of the
study can be your own barangay or
neighborhood or your own city, town,
province, region, or country.
 DELIMITING THE TOPIC
3. Time period of the research
➢ Social research has a specific historical
period or time frame.
➢ One cannot study a particular topic in its
entire historical period.
➢ It is then important to answer the
question, "How long will my study take?"
➢ This is especially relevant to historical
studies.
 DELIMITING THE TOPIC
3. Time period of the research
➢ Historians undertake research with a
clear time frame of the study.
➢ Otherwise, it would be difficult for them
to explain historical events because they
continue to happen; hence, their studies
would become endless.
 DELIMITING THE TOPIC
4. Spheres of human interest
➢ Research topics revolve around a
particular human interest.
➢ Researchers must then identify the
specific human activity or human interest
that they want to look into.
➢ They answer the question, "What human
activity or interest do I want to study?"
 DELIMITING THE TOPIC
4. Spheres of human interest
➢ The answer could be about economy, arts,
music, politics, sports, gender relations,
history, and other related human
interests.
 DELIMITING THE TOPIC
5. Social artifacts
➢ Social scientists can look into social
artifacts or any product of social beings
or human social behavior as a topic for
research.
➢ These can be concrete objects like books,
poems, literary works, cars, buildings,
structures, monuments, or news reports
that can be analyzed by the researcher.
 DELIMITING THE TOPIC
5. Social artifacts
➢ Also, social interactions are another form
of social artifacts.
➢ They can be cultural traditions,
ceremonies or rituals; social problems like
traffic, abortion, and divorce; or other
issues and occurrences in a particular area
like demonstrations, rallies, and
kidnapping, etc.
 DELIMITING THE TOPIC
5. Social artifacts
➢ To tackle a topic, a researcher must
answer the question, "What particular
social artifact or interaction will I focus
on?"
 Some Guidelines
02 for Developing a
Research Topic
 Some Guidelines for Developing a Research Topic
1. Check resources that are related to your
topic in the library.
If the topic you chose has been
extensively written on or it is so broad or
vague that there is no literature on it,
then you need to reduce its scope.
You can delimit the scope, the time frame,
human activity, or the geographic location
of your study (Gottchalk, 1967).
 Some Guidelines for Developing a Research Topic
2. Sometimes, your topic can be so specific
that it becomes difficult for you to
research it.
You may want to expand the topic.
Expanding the scope of the subject gives
you specific access to more available
resources for your topic.
A very limited or specialized topic entails
limited resources that you can use.
 Some Guidelines for Developing a Research Topic
3. Avoid topics that you do not have any
knowledge at all.
For instance, a highly specialized or a
very technical subject can be very
difficult for you to study if you have no
background knowledge of it.
 Some Guidelines for Developing a Research Topic
4. Researchers must consider the availability of
sources.
For instance, in historical studies, one should
not choose a topic in which sources are
inaccessible, inexistent, restricted or hard to
acquire, costly to access or privately-owned
(Gottchalk, 1967).
In social research, you must also consider the
participants. Ensure that the participants are
willing to participate in the research.
 Some Guidelines for Developing a Research Topic
5. Choose a topic, that is not vague,
intangible, or debatable or is not easily
answerable.
Conducting research on the topic should
be necessary to produce new knowledge
about it or to contribute to the existing
literature on it.
 Some Guidelines for Developing a Research Topic
6. Choose a topic that is not yet overly
written on by other researchers in a
field.
Always check the library and the internet
to determine if there is plenty of
research already done on your desired
topic.
 Some Guidelines for Developing a Research Topic
7. Ensure that you have the necessary funds
or resources to collect data over a period
of time.

8. Consider the resources or budget needed

to analyze data or information gathered.
 DEVELOPING A
WORKING TITLE
03 BASED ON THE
RESEARCH TOPIC
 Some Guidelines for Developing a Research Topic
1. The title should encapsulate the main idea
of the research.
2. The title should be in the form of a
concise statement that explains ho ate
the essence of the topic.
3. The title should identify the actual
variables or theoretical issues being
studied in the research.
 Some Guidelines for Developing a Research Topic
4. The title should be self-explanatory.
5. A good research title must be clearly
phrased. It must not be vague or wordy.
6. Avoid titles that do not provide any
useful purpose.
7. Do not develop a very long title because it
can mislead the readers.
 Some Guidelines for Developing a Research Topic
8. Do not begin the title with phrases like "A
Study of" or "An Experimental
Investigation of."
9. Do not use abbreviations in the title.
Spell out all the words and acronyms
used.
10. The recommended length of a research
title is 10 to 12 words.
 Examples of
04 Approved
Research Titles
 Examples of Approved Research Titles
Effects of Transformed Letters on Reading
Speed

Effects of Divorce on Children

The Effects of Extracurricular Activities on

Student's Perceived Academic Self-
Efficacy
 Examples of Approved Research Titles
Impact of Family Structure & Parental
Involvement in Low Socioeconomic Areas on
Reading Development of 2nd Grade
Elementary Students

The Impact of Parental Involvement on the

Academic Achievement of 3rd Grade
Students
 Examples of Approved Research Titles
The Effects of Outside Employment on High
School Students' Academic Achievement

The Effects of Students' Participation in

Organized, Competitive Sports on Academic
Success