Formulating a Thesis, Research Question, or Proposal

If you need help selecting a topic, 

• speak with your professor

• browse articles in newspapers, magazines, or journals that interest you

• browse "by topic" or "by subject" in library databases or reference resources such as AccessScience, CQ Researcher or Oxford Art Online.

• check the directories of online resources like About (www.about.com) or Yahoo! (http://search.yahoo.com/dir)

• use a book such as 10,000 Ideas for Term Papers, Projects, Reports & Speeches.

As you become interested in a topic, consider your stance on the topic and how you want to present your ideas. 

After you have chosen a topic, articulate a tentative thesis statement, research question, or proposal that will guide your research.  Keep in mind that in your completed paper or project you will want to communicate both an issue and your point in discussing it. 

Even though your professor may not require it, it is a always a good idea to share your tentative thesis statement, proposal, or leading question with your professor so that you will be assured before you do your research that your idea will be okay for the assignment.

See Chapter 3, "Purpose, Thesis, and Audience," and Chapter 17, "Getting Started: Researching and Writing," in The Longman Concise Companion  for more information. 

Topics, Thesis Statements, Keywords, & Subject Headings
Your thesis statement, research question, or proposal will state topics or concepts and, if an argumentative paper, a point of view. 

For instance, for an expository or informative paper, you may want to present information about Oregon's Death with Dignity Act. You might indicate that you will discuss the legislation; the Supreme Court case, Gonzales v. Oregon, which upheld the act; and the number of terminally-ill patients who have chosen this option. 

For an argumentative paper, you might develop a thesis statement that praises Oregon's stance on the right to die, indicating that you will discuss reasons why individuals should be free to make their own end-of-life decisions, and that you will advocate that the Federal government establish death-with-dignity guidelines similar to Oregon's for all states. 

To find literature on these topics, you will need to create a list of relevant search terms, both keywords and subject headings, that describe your topic.  Include everyday terms, technical jargon, broader and narrower terms, and related terms. 

Keywords
When you are looking for information, the words that you use to describe your topic and point of view will be critical to locating resources, to your argument (pro or con, objective or biased, comprehensive or superficial), and to your completed paper or project. 

When you search by keywords, you are assuming that you can guess the terms that writers have used.  However, if you are not very familiar with your topic, you may not know the variety of terms that can be used to discuss that topic.

Locating background information about your topic can help you identify related terms.  As you think about the language that you might use to describe your topic, remember that each different term carries particular nuances or connotations and may imply a particular point of view.  For instance, if you look for articles about "mercy-killing," you will find many articles that oppose "the right to die."  If you need information that discusses both the pros and cons, the neutral term "euthanasia" may be more appropriate.

Subject Headings
Subject headings or descriptors use controlled vocabulary to bring together information about a particular subject.  For example, if you are doing a paper on "death with dignity," you may discover that MEDLINE's (the National Library of Medicine's) subject headings for this concept are "Right to Die" and "Euthanasia, Active Voluntary."  Many articles that focus on these concepts, regardless of the particular terms the writers used within the articles, will be brought together under these subject headings. 

Most databases default to a keyword search but allow users to select a subject search if desired.  Many professional literature databases, however, default to a subject search.  That means that the database will attempt to redirect a keyword search to the most likely subject headings.  Check the Databases IV section of this tutorial for more information about this process.

In catalogs and research databases, each full record includes a field that identifies the subject(s).  When you find an item that is on point for your subject, you can move from a keyword to a subject heading search by clicking on the "best" subject heading.  Check reference resources, LCSH (Library of Congress Subject Headings), or a thesaurus to find more subject headings or descriptors.    

Using a Database Thesaurus
Basically, a database thesaurus is a list of preferred subject headings.  Thesauri often show the relationship between concepts and assist users in selecting appropriate subject headings. Some thesauri, such as the Thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors, are meant to be used with a particular research database.  In addition to hard copy editions, such as the ERIC Thesaurus and LCSH: Library of Congress Subject Headings, some databases, such as PubMed/MEDLINE and ERIC, have built-in electronic thesauri.

Proposal -- According to Research Writing in the Information Age, a proposal includes a thesis statement and a few sentences that indicate 1) what you already know about the topic; 2) what you still need to find out; and 3) how you propose to investigate the topic (Arnold 115).  It is sometimes referred to as a "prospectus" (Coyle 13).  The Writing Center at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas offers examples on the webpage "Writing Tips: How to Write an Abstract."

Research Question -- Also called "controlling question" (Maimon 208), the research question articulates the focus of investigation.  Research questions may assume an argumentative position, e.g., "Is Congress more important than the Supreme Court in setting social policy?" (Troyka 573).  "Developing a Research Question" in the Empire State College Research Room offers several examples of research questions as does the University of Washington's Research 101 webpage, "Using a Topic to Generate Questions." 

Thesis Statement -- Also called the thesis, The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers defines the thesis statement as "a single sentence that formulates both your topic and your point of view"  (Gibaldi  42).  The OWL at Purdue has examples of thesis statements, and an example of a thesis from The Scribner Handbook for Writers follows: 

Because evidence strongly indicates that wolf populations are important to the predator-prey balance in Yellowstone and because that repopulation can be viable for both the gray wolf and its opponents, I believe we should reverse the one-sided concessions forced upon a now endangered population and restore wolves in the park.  (DiYanni 659)

Works Cited

Arnold, Judith, Carol Poston, and Katie Witek.  Research Writing in the Information Age.  Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1999. Print.

Coyle, William.  Research Papers. 11th ed.  Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1999. Print.

DiYanni, Robert and Pat C. Hoy II.  The Scribner Handbook for Writers.  Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1995. Print.

Gibaldi, Joseph.  MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7th ed.  New York: MLA, 2009. Print. 

Maimon, Elaine et al.  Writing in the Arts and Sciences.  Boston: Little, 1981.Print.

Troyka, Lynn Quitman.  Simon & Schuster Handbook for Writers.  3rd ed.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1993. Print.

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If you prefer face-to-face assistance, stop by the Clark Memorial Library Reference Counter or schedule a Research Consultation with a Reference Librarian.