You might not arrive at a really well focused topic or really good research question early in your research and writing process. In fact, you should consider your question subject to change or adjustment even while you are writing your rough draft. Even so, the more focused your topic, the better able you will be to determine what further things you need to learn about your topic during your searching and reading.

The table below illustrates how students can move from a broad topic to a research question. Which of these narrowing techniques can you identify: Divide and conquer, Combination, Point of view, Personal angle? What sort of information would you need to develop an answer to one of these research questions?

	Example 1	Example 2	Example 3
Broad Topic	Women	Criminal justice	Computer games
Narrowed Topic	Women and politics	Death penalty or capital punishment	Computer game violence
Focused Topic	Successful women in politics	Legal defense and death row inmates	Computer game violence and children
Research Question	What characteristics do women share who are successful in politics?	Are death row inmates receiving adequate legal defense?	How does violence in computer games affect children?