LibGuides: How to Write a Research Paper: Refine

Refine

Be prepared to be flexible with your research question or thesis.

If you find too much information, your topic/thesis may be too broad. You will need to narrow or focus it.

If you are finding very little information, your topic/thesis may be too specific, narrow, specialized or current. It may be difficult to find enough information to write your paper. In this case, you will need to broaden your topic or thesis.

Broaden

Broaden Your Topic
Generalize	Generalize your topic, or explore related topics or issues. If your topic is the genetic diversity of the Akan in Ghana, broaden your topic by generalizing to all ethnic groups in Ghana or West Africa.
Currency	If your topic has just occurred, there won't be books or journal articles available just yet. Choose an alternative topic that is not so recent.
Database Choice	Use other databases in your subject area, or consider checking databases in a related subject area (which might cover the topic from a different perspective).
Synonyms	Use a thesaurus to find synonyms for your topic. When reading background information, note how your topic is expressed in these materials. When you find citations in an article database, note the terms being used by experts in the field.
Related	Explore related issues.
Expand Remove	Expand or remove: location, time period, aspect, event, population, person/group.

Broaden Your Topic

Generalize

Generalize your topic, or explore related topics or issues. If your topic is the genetic diversity of the Akan in Ghana, broaden your topic by generalizing to all ethnic groups in Ghana or West Africa.

Currency

If your topic has just occurred, there won't be books or journal articles available just yet. Choose an alternative topic that is not so recent.

Database Choice

Use other databases in your subject area, or consider checking databases in a related subject area (which might cover the topic from a different perspective).

Synonyms

Use a thesaurus to find synonyms for your topic. When reading background information, note how your topic is expressed in these materials. When you find citations in an article database, note the terms being used by experts in the field.

Related

Explore related issues.

Expand Remove

Expand or remove: location, time period, aspect, event, population, person/group.

Narrow

Narrow Your Topic
Time	Progressive Era, Civil War, Iron Age, Cold War, Victorian Era, 1920's, 18th century
Location	Europe, Middle East, U.S., Denver, New York, urban, rural, eastern, western
Population	Age, race, gender, nationality, ethnic group, occupation, species
Event or Aspect	Focus on an event within your topic: for human cloning, investigate government regulation of cloning. Or consider a particular aspect: historical, sociological, psychological.
Person or Group	Related to your topic: college students, Democrats, Republicans, Barack Obama