This handout is drafted with a view to help research scholars who in search of research topic. Once the research topic/area is identified, the another step is to convert it into an argument. This is very difficult phase and requires a lot of thinking. The second part of this handout has some 10 indicators to help scholars to turn research topic into an argument. The third part of this handout helps in preparing first draft of research proposal.
Deciding on a Research Topic (Owens, 2010):
One of the points to stress at the outset is that the range of possible research topics in literature is very wide indeed. Despite this, or perhaps because of this, students occasionally find it difficult to make up their minds what it is they want to investigate. If you feel, momentarily, that you can’t decide what might interest you, you could try making a list of things that you would like to learn more about. Once you have a list of up to five or six things, you should take some time to read around each of them a bit, trying to think not only which seems most enticing and likely to hold your interest, but which of them your previous study has best equipped you to pursue. By ‘reading around’, I do not mean reading aimlessly, or in a desultory fashion. On the contrary, you should be reading quickly and purposively, with questions in your mind, scanning material that seems potentially relevant to your areas of interest and getting an overview of it. The questions you should be asking include:
Answer to these questions with reference to your research interest: |
1 | What are some of the key studies in this field? | 1)
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2 | What kinds of approaches have been taken to the subject? | 1)
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3 | What are the key issues and questions in this field? | 1)
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4 | Are there any possible gaps, or approaches yet to be explored? (Digital Humanities, Film Studies, Cultural Studies, Globalization, postcoloniality, Study of controversies in literature, banned books, retellings, teaching literature, teaching criticism, teaching literary theories, study of censorship, sci-fi, self-help, electronic/digital literature, realism - social/virtual)
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TURNING A TOPIC INTO AN ARGUMENT (Owens, 2010)
Having decided on your topic and limited its scope, the next step is to give it a direction. The way to do this is to develop out of your topic a set of questions you want to answer, or problems that you want to solve. Doing research is not about gathering information or data for its own sake: the information or data
is presented in order to answer questions, in order to try to change what is thought about something. Virtually every good dissertation will take the form of an argument, of an attempt to prove or establish something by means of presentation and analysis of evidence.
There are many possible ways of turning a topic into an argument. To give some examples, your dissertation might be one of the following:
Based on the research topic selected above, draft an argument with the help of below given indicators |
1 | an argument for or against an existing critic (or critical position) in relation to the author or group of works you are studying |
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2 | an argument about the importance of a particular influence on a writer, or influence exerted by him or her |
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3 | an argument for the importance of some hitherto little-regarded piece of evidence to the discussion of the work of some author or group of authors |
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4 | an argument about the value of a new theoretical approach to a text or set of texts |
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5 | an argument turning upon the nature of the genre of a work or group of works |
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6 | an argument about the significance of a little-known or undervalued author or work; |
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7 | an argument about some historical or literary-historical aspect of literature |
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8 | an argument about the adequacy of existing scholarly texts of a particular work; |
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9 | an argument showing how a particular theme or concept may be related to a group of texts; |
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10 | an argument bringing together some aspect of a well-known literary text with a lesser-known text or with other media. |
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PREPARING A RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Assuming that you have an idea for a possible research project that is sufficiently tightly defined so that it is do-able in the time and space available, and further assuming that you have checked that you can get access to the necessary materials, you will usually need to write a research proposal for approval by your
tutor or supervisor.
Think of it as an exercise in persuasion:
you are trying to convince your tutor or supervisor that you have evidence (although as yet unexploited) to support the argument you propose to advance. You should present it in continuous prose, but arranged under a set of headings such as the following.
Based on the research topic selected and argument developed in above activity, write first draft of your research proposal on the line of indicators given below: |
1 | Title: Do not feel bound by this: it is important to have a title that is clear and informative, but a first attempt can be altered in the finished product |
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2 | Argument: State as concisely as possible what your subject is and what your argument will be. |
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3 | Materials: Go into more detail about your materials, i.e. the chief primary and secondary sources you will use and discuss, giving some indication as to their aptness for your project, and how easy it will be to get hold of them. |
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4 | Chapters: Show how you think your discussion of your topic may be organised, chapter by chapter, in the final product. This provisional chapter structure is very important, so make sure it is clear to the reader how many chapters there are going to be, what is going to go into each, how they will connect with each other, and how long each is planned to be. If possible, give provisional chapter titles |
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5 | Conclusion: Clearly, this will be provisional at this stage. You have not yet argued your case, merely outlined the materials and likely directions of your argument. You might also like to indicate at this stage what problems you think you might encounter along the way. |
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6 | Bibliography: A list of the key primary and secondary texts you intend using should be appended to the proposal – though, again, this list will be provisional and will certainly expand once you begin serious work. |
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Work Cited
Owens, W. R. (2010). Planning, Writing, and Presenting a Dissertation or Thesis. In D. D. Correa, & W. R. Owens, The Handbook to Literary Research (second ed., pp. 187-203). Oxon, New York, Canada, USA: Rourledge.
You should be alluding throughout this section to the main secondary literature on your subject (historical, critical, theoretical, etc.), not just to demonstrate that you are aware of it, but to indicate how you might use it. So, for example, you might be planning to take issue with what some critic has said, or you may want to show how your work relates to, and perhaps extends or qualifies, some existing scholarship on your subject.
