For many research assignments you get to pick your topic, or you are given general directions to pick from a very broad area. "Great," you think, "I get to do what I want." And then your mind goes blank, and you can't think of a thing you want to do. You realize you just don't know enough about the allowed subject matter to begin to make a choice, much less a good choice. So what can you do?

Browse

Just take a look around. The best places to look are those that have some information right at hand, so you can more easily decide if a topic really interests you or not.

• Recent magazines or other periodicals
• Encyclopedias or other reference books
• Textbooks

You will see that each of these resources cover an immense range of topics and also have fairly small packets of information directly connected to the titles or headings that might catch your eye. So browse, and let your curiosity lead you. Let the headings and titles remind you of questions you never quite got an answer to. Check on things that puzzle you or surprise you.

The Best Topic in the World

You may come up with several possible topics, so now you have a different sort of problem, too many ideas. Finally, you have to pick one. Just make sure it meets the number one criterion for a good research paper topic:

You want to learn more about it.

You can't wait to learn more about it. You want to spend hours learning more about it. You are going to spend hours on your research paper, and picking a topic that interests you will turn hours of drudgery into hours of pleasant reading, if not fun and games.