Transcript Narrow down your Topic

Research
Step One
Narrow Down your Topic
Internet Security:

How to narrow this topic Down?

What are the strategies that one should
consider?
Strategy:
Explanation:
Topic:
Internet Security
Time
Since 1990? This year? In the
future?
Current Internet security
Local social norms & values,
economic & political systems,
or languages.
Internet security initiatives
Gender, age, occupation,
ethnicity, nationality,
educational attainment, species,
etc.
Filtering software and
children's access to
Internet pornography
Place
Population
Viewpoint Social, legal, medical, ethical,
biological, psychological,
economic, political,
philosophical? A viewpoint
allows you to focus on a single
aspect
initiatives.
in the U.S
The constitutionality of
Internet filtering technology
Step Two
Find your Research Question
What is the Research Question?
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Research requires a question for which no ready answer is
available.
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It is answered in your thesis & throughout your paper
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Whenever a yes / no question lies behind a research question,
an assumption has been made; therefore, you should:

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Identify the assumption
Support it in your paper (introduction)
RQ: Why is it important?

Asking a topic as a question (or series of related
questions) has several advantages:
1- Questions require answers
They are not like general topics or statements
that are too broad to be answered and sometimes
they are confusing.
2-A clear open-ended question calls for real
research and thinking.
Assuming that your research may solve
significant problems or expand the knowledge
base of a discipline involves you in more
meaningful activity of community and
scholarship.
Examples of RQs.
Topic
Question
Drugs and Crime Could liberalization of drug laws reduce crime in
the U.S.?
University
Education in
Egypt
To what extent is university education in Egypt
preparing students for the workplace?
foreign aid for
agricultural
development in
India
To what extent is foreign aid for agricultural
development in India benefiting the country?
Now…What Are The Topics of these
Questions?
?
?
Why has the Egyptian
government failed to
overhaul the education
curriculum?
Why is European aid for
industrial development
to India ineffective?
Example I:
Are women
victims of
discrimination
in the workplace?
Does day care
harm children?
Working
Women
Has women's increased
participation
in the work force
harmed society?
Is sexual harassment
in the workplace
exaggerated?
Should women
serve in military combat?
Exercise I:
Put two Research Questions for each of the
following topics:

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Laws regarding divorce in Egypt
AIDS awareness campaign held in Egypt
Political Participation in Egypt
Exercise II :
Look at question markers for clues, and
Consider how you would form the question
Why
Does
•USAID to Egypt
for agriculture
What
How