Page 20 - PAPER PRESENTATION 2ND

UNIT 1

CHOOSING TOPICS

Students are able to:
1. apply the steps in choosing
topics by initial search and source
expansion method.
2. determine their proposed topic
to be developed into a research-
based paper

DIscUssIoN HOW TO CHOOSE A TOPIC?
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In choosing a topic for your research-based paper, you can use existing
literature or scholarly works such as journal article or conference proceeding to help

you determine the focus of your paper. To do so, you can do either initial topic

search or source expansion. This unit will lead you to practice those two methods in
order to find your topic for your research-based paper.

1. Initial topic search through pick, test, and find method
In principle, picking a topic is not a one-way street. The Library of North

Carolina State University (2013) proposes that picking a topic is actually research.

This is primarily because it has been an integral part in conducting your study. To do
so, some students believe that once a research project is assigned, they need to find

the topic immediately. Then, they can find sources and read through them. After all
reading materials are all found, the process begins by writing and editing the paper.

In fact, the process of writing a research paper could be more complex than those

process as the writer needs to test his/her ideas through some search strategies.
The following figure describes the process involved in finding a research topic.

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