The first step to writing a dissertation fast is to choose a topic to investigate. However, coming up with a relevant topic for the project can be hard and agonizing if you don’t know how to go about it. That’s why in this guide, you’ll learn exactly how to choose dissertation topics for your project so you can get started with research as soon as possible.
We’ve been in the academic writing space long enough to know how difficult coming up with a dissertation topic is.
In fact, one of the common questions many readers ask us has to do with choosing the right topics, which means topic selection can be such a tedious process for many students.
Given our experience in dissertation writing, we have some useful tips that can save you a lot of time and stress by making it incredibly easy for you to choose the right topic for your dissertation assignment.
How to Choose Dissertation Topics
Here are some useful tips that can help you choose the best dissertation topics for your next thesis project:
Don’t Fret if Your Topic Isn’t Unique
Many students fail at choosing topics for their dissertation because they think too much outside the box and end up with nothing to show for it.
The thing is:
Spending too much of your time trying to think about some unique topic ideas that no student has ever explored is just but a waste of your precious time.
So instead of trying to come up with a topic that might blow your instructor’s mind away, pick a topic to which you can make a unique contribution and stick with it.
One thing you need to keep in mind when selecting a topic for your dissertation assignment is that it doesn’t matter if someone else already discovered the topic.
Choose whatever topic you want provided you can make useful contributions to it and expand the already existing body of knowledge.
At the end of the day, students get the opportunity to make unique contributions to their dissertations once they’ve completed their literature review for the dissertation.
First, that means you don’t have to invest a topic yourself, because there would be no existing studies to examine. Second, you’ll have more time to figure out new ways of approaching the topic you choose.
Search the Web for Topic Ideas
Good dissertation topics don’t often pop when you need them the most. So looking at the web for ideas can be a great way to find inspiration to help you come up with a topic you that you can work on.
The best thing about this approach is that there are several place to get topic ideas fast.
- Use Google to find previously published topics. You can find just about any topic ideas by a simple search. Whether you need early childhood education topics or something completely different, you’ll find Google to be incredibly helpful.
- Look at Journals that publish content in your area of study. You more than likely will find more topic ideas than you need, but make sure you focus on the topics that are in your area of interest.
Really you can use these sources as the starting point to come up with the most suitable topic for your dissertation.
Make Sure You’re Interested in the Topic
The worst mistake you can make when choosing a dissertation topic is to focus on a subject you know nothing about or an area you’re just not interested in.
Keep in mind that there’s no turning back when you choose a topic to explore in your research.
In other words, once your instructor approves you for a given topic, their expectations is that you stick to the topic right from the beginning to the end.
So make your life easier by identifying and picking a topic you’re interested in, or a subject that focuses on an area you’ve always wanted to explore.
But how do you know if you’re even interested in a topic in the first place?
The first option is to consider what you always think about from time to time.
It could be something that intrigues you, makes you angry, or gets you inspired quite too often.
Also, consider what you love talking about from time to time when you hang out with friends on campus or family at home, as that, too, can help you come up with an interesting topic for your dissertation.
The second option is to look at assignments you’ve already done and single out the topics you found the most interesting to research and write.
Choose one of the topics, zoom on it further, and see if it can be a good topic for your dissertation.
Choose a Topic that’s Relevant to Your Career Goals
A dissertation is an assignment you have to take seriously. And when it comes to choosing a topic to explore, it had better be relevant to your career goals give or take.
The idea here is that you should consider choosing a topic that will get you exactly where you want to go depending on the expert knowledge that you already have.
Simple is Always Better
Many students make choosing dissertation topics difficult because they focus on unnecessarily complex and insanely complicated topics.
As if that’s not enough, they come up with long research questions that are just hard to understand.
In the end, they struggle to write their dissertations so they have to repeat the process all over again.
We discourage this approach and strongly recommend that you choose a topic that’s simple and straightforward.
By simplifying your dissertation topic, you’ll easily control the growth of you research project and never have to worry about dead end.
Again, keeping things simple allows you to have a clear focus group. And when you have a very clear focus, even your research methodology won’t break you as you go deeper with the project.
Conclusion
Choosing dissertation topics can be challenging, but it doesn’t have to be difficult at all.
Have a second, or even a third, look at these tips, and you’ll be amazed just how quick you can find a bunch of topics to brain storm and eventually figure out what option is best for your research.