Choosing A Research Paper Title: Suggestions For Students


One of the most important skills in writing research papers is selecting a suitable topic. Actually, selection of a good topic is somehow a breakthrough in writing other sections of the paper. A suitable title is defined by a number of factors, from writing informative and interesting content as well using good grammar without syntax errors. The following are suggestions on choosing a good topic:

  • Focus on a specific question: Most students write research papers for teachers to mark, little do they know that this narrow focus limits them towards scoring high grades. Your paper should seek to answer a given question in the field of study in question. Regardless of what field, always ask if there is a question left unanswered by currents research. That is where to start.

  • Read current works: Finding out a question that is unanswered by present research begins here. In fact, many researchers always provide a clue towards this by highlighting their study limitations at the end and even providing suggestions on what issues need to be looked into in the future.

  • Find out the most pressing issue: Modern day world is totally different with all the media around us. You can, with very little effort and within the shortest time possible, find out topics or issues that are pressing to stakeholders/experts in a given field. The truth is experts all over are looking for solutions to most pressing issues in their day to day life. Using the internet is very helpful to find out such issues. It will help you track titles that affect people of different locations and undertakings - marketing, engineering, medicine and politics among others. You can develop a title around these pressing issues. From here, you can list a number of titles, say 10. Further research will help to narrow down on which topics are easier to deal in. For instance, background checks can let you know if there are materials for a given topic. You can shun those titles where such material seems scanty.

  • Submit title suggestions: Once you list the topic suggestions, you can choose to ask the supervisor which the most suitable is. Make sure to understand how to write them well to minimize the rate of rejection. For instance, you should use descriptive terms and phrases in writing them whilst making sure that the main issues are captured. You can also ask friends which ones they think are better.