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SPARK: Finding Interesting Ideas

A resource for students wanting to improve their academic and research skills.

Finding Interesting Ideas

Where can you look for appropriate ideas that will interest you?

  • Review course readings and classroom or tutorial discussions. These can highlight issues or approaches within a course that may help you develop good topics or questions for further research.
  • Skim your notes from course readings and lectures for issues, topics or approaches that might provide a good foundation for further research.
  • Examine your course syllabus for course goals and context that may provide some ideas.

Similar techniques can be used when choosing from a list of potential topics. Again, look for something that interests you. You will also want to do some preliminary background research to see what potential sources are available.

In all cases, it is a good idea to discuss both your topic and your approach with your instructor to see if it is feasible.