Theatre & Musical Theatre

Selecting a research topic are critical steps in writing your research paper.  Your challenge is to select a topic which is:

• Interesting to yourself and others
• Relevant to your course content
• Supported by an adequate number and variety of primary and secondary sources
• Of appropriate size and scope to be covered in a research paper of limited length
• A topic that allows analysis, original thinking, synthesis rather than simple, factual reporting 
• Objective rather than emotional, personal or pure opinion

Ideas on selecting a topic:

• Look over course readings, textbooks, handouts
• Borrow a library book that gives a good overview of a general topic area
• Look up the topic in a reference book, such as an encyclopedia or handbook
• Do some preliminary, general searches for articles in a relevant research database

Once you have done some preliminary reading on a topic, you should start having ideas on sub-topics related to the broad area.

Ancient Greece → Greek Tragedy → Deus Ex Machina

But you are not done yet!  "Deus Ex Machina" is too general as an essay topic.

You need to further refine this into a research question.

Can you phrase your topic as a question?  What avenues can you explore with your research? Try creating questions using WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY, HOW, COULD, SHOULD.

What was the purpose of "Deux ex Machina" in Greek tragedy?

How did audiences react to the "god in the machine"?

How did Euripides incorporate the convention of "Deux ex Machina" into his plays?

What was the role of "Deux ex Machina" in the play "Electra"?

Why did Moliere use the convention of "Deux ex Machina" in his play Tartuffe?

By doing more research, you will be able to decide which research question is the appropriate size and scope for your paper.

Concept mapping is a graphic technique used to brainstorm your topic.  The video was created by Douglas College Library.