How to Select Assignment Topics
This Resource Page will help you:
- Understand the importance of selecting an appropriate assignment topic.
- Learn effective strategies for selecting a topic.
Introduction
Your course instructors might ask you to write a ‘midterm paper’ or ‘final paper’, and they will often require you to choose your own assignment topic.
For example, in a course about Second Language Teaching Methodologies, your instructor might provide the following guidelines:
“You can write a research-oriented position paper. From an educational researcher perspective, position yourself in relation to and critically discuss one of the fundamental methodologies, areas, concepts or issues presented in this course. Aim to support your position on this topic with scholarly research, examples, and any other resources you deem appropriate.”
Once you’ve understood the assignment instructions, the next thing to do is choose your paper topic.
What are the Features of an Appropriate Assignment Topic?
Selecting and developing your own topic helps you improve your thinking and research skills. As you think about topics, it is important to find a balance between what you want to explore and what your assignment instructions ask for.
A common challenge for students is finding topics that are focused. When your topic is too broad, the feedback you might receive from your instructor is “to narrow it down”.
Narrowing down a topic means defining
- a specific focus of inquiry (e.g., a teaching strategy, a framework, a curriculum reform, an educational policy, a counselling approach)
- a context (e.g., geographical context, education setting, target population)
- a purpose (e.g., what is the impact of an approach, what are the causes of an issue, how was a policy decided, contrast/comparison of methodologies, solutions to a problem)
When you focus your topic (AKA “narrow it down”), you dig deeper into a specific part of it, which makes your research more detailed and doable. Focusing your topic is important to establish clear boundaries to what you will be reading and writing about.
If your topic is too broad:
- You may find too many sources and feel overwhelmed
- You may struggle deciding what concepts to include or omit
- The information you find will be too general
- The result might be a general assignment that fails to respond to the specific assignment instructions.
Let's compare some broad and narrowed-down assignment topics to highlight the difference:
Strategies for Finding Your Topic
MUST DO!
Before you choose your assignment topic, review the assignment instructions.
Pay attention to any specific requirements or constraints outlined in the instructions, including the types and number of sources you are required to use. This can help you identify the boundaries and expectations for your topic. You can learn more about understanding assignment instructions here.
Our unique background can lead to fresh perspectives on existing topics or inspire entirely new research questions. Think about your personal or professional experience related to the theme of your course with an inquisitive eye. Ask yourself critical questions about these experiences in relation to what you are learning.
Here is some inspiration for you:
- If you have teaching experience, think about how concepts you're learning in your course might apply to your teaching context.
- Think about a problem / issue you have encountered in your personal /professional life. Can you seek information to better understand it or solve it?
- Think about some behaviors / attitudes that you or people you know have. Can you find explanations for them through the concepts you’re learning?
- Think about broader social issues or education-related issues in your culture. Can you find any relationships to your course contents?
Talk about your assignment topic ideas with your peers and instructors in class.
Outside of class, unleash your curiosity and be proactive! Attend workshops, seminars, university events, and other academic activities. You might discover new areas of interest or research angles. You can also receive valuable guidance and suggest areas of research that align with our academic goals.
While taking your courses, keep a list of interesting topics and questions.
Inspiration can strike at any moment, so jot down your ideas whenever they come to you.
Where to find inspiration for ideas?
- Review course outlines and topics and see what interests you
- Take notes of interesting points made by your professors and colleagues in and outside of class
- Think about your professional /personal experience and write down issues and questions that might align with course content
If you have a general idea about your topic and are in the process of refining it, you should do some preliminary research and find relevant literature that will help you narrow down and refine your topic.
If your topic is very broad (e.g., Constructivism and learning), start from general sources like
- Specialized encyclopedias
- State-of-the-art articles
- Literature reviews
- Meta-analysis articles
These are goldmines for identifying the main concepts, trends, research gaps and scholars around your topic of interest.
Look for recent literature, if possible, to learn about the most current knowledge and questions in your field of study.
Note that the literature you read and search can be relatively broader than the topic we will eventually choose. For example, our review might reveal that there is a growing body of literature on the “benefits of project-based learning in primary education”. This could inspire us to investigate the effectiveness of project-based learning specifically in science education.
For more information on how to search for appropriate sources check How to Find Sources for Assignments. To learn more about literature reviews, check What is a Literature Review and How to Prepare a Literature Review.
Our Tips
Find a topic that interests you! Graduate courses allow you to explore areas of study that are meaningful to you. Consider assignments as an opportunity to advance your own learning interests.
Start early! Finding the right assignment topic is often an iterative process and can take some time. This means that your first topic idea might not be your final topic as you go back and forth between your topic selection strategies, discussions with your instructor and literature search.
Be proactive! Discuss your ‘half-baked’ ideas and/or outline with your instructor, and ask for specific feedback and constructive advice. Show your instructor that you have done some preliminary work instead of asking them, “can you please help me find a topic?”
Next Steps
Once you finalize your assignment topic, it’s time to search for sources on the library databases using different combinations of keywords. Check our resource page on searching for sources.