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First Steps
Often, when beginning research, the topic is too broad. In those cases, think of the 5 Ws to help you narrow your topic. Often reading an article or two can help you focus in on these questions.
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Who?
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What?
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When?
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Where?
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Why?
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| Think about who you would like to focus on. You could look at age, race, gender, ethnicity, profession, etc. | Think about what you would like to focus on. For example, you might be focusing on a certain type of leadership such as legitimate, transactional, or transformational leadership skills. | Think about when you would like to focus in terms of your topic. This could be a time frame or a specific period in time such historical leadership theories, current leaders, or leadership strategies during WWII. | Think about where you would like your focus. Perhaps you're interested in learning the workplace culture in another country, or maybe you want to focus on small businesses or non-profits. | Think about why this topic is significant. Usually this will come down to outcomes, impacts, treatments, causes, etc. For a topic like this you might be focused on employee satisfaction or company turnover as your "why." |
| Example: "leadership strategies of CEOs." | Example: "transformational leadership strategies of CEOs." | Example: "transformational leadership strategies of emerging CEOs." | Example: "transformational leadership strategies of emerging CEOs in America." |
Example: "How transformational leadership strategies of emerging CEOs in America impact production output." |
Final Steps
When you've answered all of your questions, you may find that your topic is now too narrow, but you can mix and match the keywords that you've established to come up with a good topic. Remember to have fun with it!
As a reminder, watch the library tutorial starting at 1:00 on how to narrow your topic: