How can a research topic be too broad?

Beginning researchers wonder how any topic can be too broad.

But it can.

Beginning researchers worry that they will not be able to find enough sources ("use a minimum of 10 sources"). They want to make sure the topic is BIG enough. When assigned to write about the Civil War, they choose to Abraham Lincoln.

Any attempt to discuss animal rights, the Vietnam War, or Herman Melville's Moby Dick, not to mention his other novels and poetry, in its entirety is doomed from the start. If it took more than 10 years to fight the Vietnam War, you cannot expect to discuss it in any detail in 5 to 8 to even 10 pages of double-spaced, 12 point prose.

• A Rule of Thumb: If entire books have been written about the subject, you cannot expect to address it adequately in a five-page (or even a ten-page) paper.
• Another Rule: If you do write on it anyway, you will end up simply retelling the events rather than analyzing them and providing your paper with a RESEARCH QUESTION.

If you have trouble figuring out how to narrow your topic down,

REMEMBER, you can ask for Help! Ask your teacher! Ask Librarians! If you need to, just hit the PANIC button!

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Created by Ruth Burridge Lindemann, 2002. ©Danville Area Community College, 2002-2004.
Updated August 15, 2004