In graduate school, your professor frequently gives you only a very general topic (often from the course title).
Example: Environmental Policy
You must narrow this topic to something manageable within the scope of a seminar paper. If necessary, clarify the purpose of your paper with your professor. The following approaches may be helpful in choosing and narrowing your topic:
Consider your own course-related interests. Use freewriting to explore your interests.
Consider topics from the syllabus and lectures. Recall questions that were asked in class. (Unanswered questions provide particularly fertile ground for exploration.)
Use journalistic questions.
Examples: What are important issues in environmental policy? Who plays significant roles in policy making? Where are the most innovative policies being developed?
Do exploratory reading. Review general sources.
Examples: Encyclopedias, Dictionary of American Biography, Corpus Juris Secondum, text books, etc.
Review recent journals in your field.
Examples: American Political Science Review, Econometrica, Policy Studies Journal, Educational Review, American Historical Review, Publications of the Modern Language Association (PMLA), Feminist Studies
Talk with professor, classmates, Writing Center Consultants.
Develop a research question to focus your efforts.
Example: Are pollution credits an effective policy for reducing air pollution in the L.A. Basin?