Narrow your dissertation topic down – how to make a broad research topic more specific

Описание: Most students begin with a broad research dissertation topic, and are told they need to "narrow it down", and "get more specific". Knowing exactly how to narrow your topic down is easy to learn, you just need to remember these three words: who; what; where.

WHO is about people. Every dissertation in the social sciences must include a group of people who have at least one thing in common. Avoid broad groups like "women" or "students", and think about narrower subgroups within this, for example, "women 18-24", "medical students".

WHAT is about an issue or interest. Your dissertation topic needs to have a specific issue that your people are experiencing or an interest that they have. For example, "age related discrimination", "struggling with math", or "lack of access to healthcare".

WHERE is about the context. Your dissertation topic should have a context, being a place or space, virtual or real, in which your people are experiencing the issue or having the interest. That might be a physical location like a town or city, a social institution like education or criminal justice, or an online space like a social media platform. When you have all of these elements, you will be able to narrow down your broad topic into a specific, focused topic that will enable you to prioritise depth over breadth and achieve a fantastic degree of critical insight.

In this video, I go through these elements in more detail, with more examples, as well as sharing tips on how to get even more specific and how to craft your topic using example prompts and phrases.

Chapters
0:00 – 2:16 Introduction and overview
2:17 – 3:34 Who?
3:35 – 4:04 What?
4:05 – 4:51 Where?
4:52 – 5:33 Putting it all together
5:34 – 6:25 Using ‘Which?’ to get even more specific
6:26 – 7:11 Conclusion

// Other helpful videos for starting a dissertation //
How to develop aims and objectives    • What are aims and objectives for a dissert...  
How to write the introduction chapter    • WRITING A DISSERTATION INTRODUCTION Do's a...  
How to write your literature review    • How to write a literature review for your ...  
The three types of social science dissertation    • What are the three types of social science...  
How to read critically for your dissertation    • How to read critically, quickly – 4-step e...  
How to get better at academic writing    • WRITING ACADEMICALLY Beat imposter syndrom...  
How to write a literature based dissertation    • Literature based dissertation - How to str...  

// See my videos BEFORE everyone else does! //
For early access to my videos and whole load of other cool things, become a Degree Doctor channel member!    / @degreedoctor  

// Get free weekly reassurance that you’re COMPLETELY NORMAL! //
The PhD journey can be a tough one, and my weekly emails are written with that in mind! They’re full of practical advice and easy-to-implement tips, as well as, “It’s okay, the way you’re feeling is completely valid” type stuff. If that sounds good to you, sign up here and grab yourself a free guide on how to fix a messy literature review too:
https://www.thedegreedoctor.com/how-t...

// I sell lots of great stuff! Take a look at what you can buy! //
Want to see some of the resources and courses you can buy to help you on your PhD journey? Here are a few that you might like if you enjoyed this video:

Want to get confident with paradigms? Check out my course, Paradigms for Beginners https://www.thedegreedoctor.com/parad...
Need some quick wins? Try my Cheat Sheet Library https://www.thedegreedoctor.com/cheat...
Want me to walk you through each of your PhD chapters, step-by-step? Check out my PhD Survival Guides https://www.thedegreedoctor.com/phd-s...