How to Narrow Your Topic and Develop a Thesis Statement

Narrowing your Topic and Developing a Thesis Statement

Before you can begin your research you need to narrow your selected topic.

For example, if "marketing'' is your chosen topic, "marketing" as a research topic is too broad. The amount of information on the subject of marketing is enormous; therefore, the topic must be narrowed.

Instead, think of some aspect of the general subject of marketing that interests you, for example:

• Internet marketing
• Green marketing
• Marketing to special groups

Let's say that you are interested in marketing to special groups.

You could narrow the topic of marketing even more by adding a sub-topic.

• an age group: marketing to adolescents
• a location: marketing in Japan
• a population: marketing to minorities or women

It is helpful to write out your projected topic as a sentence or a question. Let's say the question that most interests you is:

How do advertisers market their products to women?

This is the basis of your thesis statement! (More on Thesis Statements to come in a future post.) Now you can begin your research.