18/01/2025
3 important questions when choosing a research topic.
Whether you are a student or young researcher, the choice of research topic is crucial to how smooth or fast the research journey will be. These three questions may help you avoid frustration.
1. What method will be required? People usually have problems with methods during research because they choose the topic without thinking about methods. The truth is, it is not the researcher who determines the method to use but the topic. If you are not a quantitative person, do not choose a topic that demands quantitative analysis. Because you cannot choose to do qualitative when the topic demands that you go quantitative. More on this later.
2. Will you find your research participants when you need them? It is important to think about your respondents at the time of formulating the topic. People often ignore this salient point, go ahead to choose a topic and go through all the process, especially students, only to find out their respondents are not available. This can be frustrating. At the topic formulation stage ask yourself, who will I need to talk to in order to achieve this research objective and will those people be available when I need them? If it's no, rethink the topic.
3. What time do I have to complete this research? Often students prefer fancy topics rather than feasible topics. You want to complete school and move on with life not to become a star. Your supervisor is not even a star. Therefore choose a simple, straightforward topic rather than a nicely worded fanciful topic.
More to follow.
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