As you go on with your life, there are complicated problems that you may

encounter which need long term solutions. To prepare you for these challenges, this

module provides you with activities that will develop and enhance your critical

thinking and writing skills.

Here are the steps in selecting and limiting a research topic:

1. Brainstorm for Ideas – Choose a topic that interests you.
What local treasure or heritage in the community would you like
to research
on? Why does it interest you and what would you like to know
more about it?
Do you have an opinion about the local treasure or heritage?
2. Identify the Sources of General Background Information
– Choose
sources where you can gather information about your topic.
What sources of information can you use to gather information?
Who can help
you in providing information about the topic? Can you use the
library,
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Study Thesemagazines, journals, periodicals, or the internet to
collect information? Do you
know any organization that can help you in gathering
information?
3. Focus on Your Topic – A topic will very difficult to research
if it is too broad
or too narrow. Some common ways to limit a topic are: by
geographical area,
by culture, by time frame, by discipline and by population
group.
What specific area or factor of a local treasure or heritage in the
community
would you focus your research on? Why did you decide to focus
on that
specific area or aspect? Who is affected by the topic?
4. Make a List of Useful Keywords – Find key concepts to
widen your search
capabilities.
What are the keywords that you can use to best describe your
topic?
5. Be Flexible – It is common to modify your topic during the
research process.
You may find too much and need to narrow your focus, or too
little and need
to broaden your focus.
What are the considerations or adjustments that you would do if
ever there is
a need to modify your research topic?
6. Define your topic as a Focused Research Question – You
will often begin
with a word, develop a more focused interest in an aspect of
something
relating to that word, and then begin to have questions about the
topic.
What the primary question that your research topic wants to
answer?
7. Formulate a Thesis Statement- This may be the answer to
your research
question and/or a way to clearly state the purpose of your
research. Your
thesis statement will usually be one or two sentences that states
precisely
what to be answered, proven, or what you will inform your
audience about
your topic.
What is the thesis statement of the study that you would like to
conduct?
You may already think of answers for the given guide questions
in selecting and
limiting a good research topic.
This time you are going to read a paragraph. Analyse it carefully
for you will
be answering the questions that follow on a one-fourth sheet of
paper.
Child Labour takes such a huge figure in India especially due to
the rapid
growth of population and corresponding increase in the number
of people below the
poverty line. The immediate effect of these global and social
problems is that
children, mostly of the age of 7 – 14 years, are forcefully pushed
to take up difficult
and dangerous jobs, often at the risk of their tender lives, just to
earn some extra
money for the family. This problem needs to be dealt with at the
earliest, to ensure a
proper childhood that is the fundamental right of every child.
Some of the major
problems faced during the research have been:
Most families are unwilling to give out details of the child
labourers, if any.
Inspite of details being shown of the adverse effects of child
labour, they are not
willing to sacrifice this source of income.
6Even the children are happy earning from these tasks and have
no wish to gather
knowledge or go to school for learning, etc.