How to Come up With Creative Ideas for Your Research
By Space Coast Daily // September 23, 2021
Good research requires a creative approach. Read on to find pro tips on looking for a creative, attention-grabbing subject for your next paper.
How to Come Up with Creative Ideas for Your Research
Brainstorming for ideas is a responsible task, as it determines your further research and writing. Finding an unconventional angle may be particularly challenging if you were given a popular topic for an essay (e.g., prison reform, legalization of marijuana, climate change, etc.). So, how do erratic ideas develop into excellent topics? How to find a research problem that hasn’t been covered well in the literature? The law assignment writing service writers answer these questions to help you refine your research ideas.
What is a Good Research Topic?
To begin with, let’s determine what we are looking for. How does a good paper look, and what distinguishes it from failing papers? First, the topic should be interesting to you. Being emotionally and intellectually engaged in research is essential to produce a high-quality paper, so don’t select boring topics. Second, your research should be focused and specific. Avoid ambiguous, general topics that cannot be examined in detail. Finally, a good research topic always invites readers to learn more.
How to Search for the Best Ideas?
You can take advantage of the following strategies when you struggle with brainstorming:
1. Look for gaps and limitations. Determine the general topic you are interested in and search for the literature. Explore what scholars are writing about and what topics are the most pressing. Then, look at the limitations sections in research papers, as they usually contain many ideas about the direction for further research. For example, an article on anxiety in teenagers may identify the lack of knowledge on anxiety in specific populations (e.g., minority students). Such gaps can serve as potential topics for your research. Using this strategy, you will ensure that your research contributes to the existing body of knowledge.
2. An exciting way to find an unconventional research idea is to select a new field you know little about. Since you have other background experience than the experts in the given field, you may see things and anomalies they overlook or take for granted. Write down everything that strikes you as odd and try to come up with new explanations.
3. Use your experiences. It is easier to write about something you’ve experienced or witnessed. Think about the events or phenomena that had a particular impact on you and try to look at them from the scientific (scholarly) perspective. You may be surprised by how your perspectives on things change as you start to examine the literature. Research originating from your experiences can engage you more, which will be reflected in the quality of writing and the depth of analysis.
4. Build on what you already know. It is not always necessary to come up with new research ideas. There may be topics you have already written about but that haven’t been developed enough yet. For instance, you might have researched the topic of grassroots organizations and their impact on the local political processes but did not have a chance to examine how they work in your area. This strategy will simplify your research because you already have background knowledge and can simply build on it as you discover new information.
5. Ask for a piece of advice. If you feel stuck and don’t know where to start, you can always ask for help. You can discuss the topics that interest you with your professor and ask them to help you narrow down your research topic. Their experience in the field and their academic writing skills can be beneficial.
6. Don’t put creativity over meaning. Your research should be realistic and meaningful, and it should contribute to the existing knowledge. Always remember that it should have practical or theoretical significance, as winning the Ig Nobel Prize is not your priority.
7. Finally, learn from the best. There are plenty of examples of high-quality research in scientific papers and academic journals. Explore how experienced writers narrow down their studies to particular topics. Pay attention to how they formulate their thesis statements and what language they use. Try to determine what distinguishes their papers from dozens of others written on a similar topic. In this way, you will better understand the criteria for excellent research.
Summing Up
A good research topic is hard to find, so be prepared to spend much time studying the literature and brainstorming. Don’t rush into writing before you are sure that the topic is worth further examination. Take your time and use some of the strategies listed above. In this way, you will make sure that your research is valuable and meaningful.
