CA 300: Foundations of Communication Research: Research Topics

You can build a research topic through a mind map. You can use pieces or paper or textboxes to arrange your ideas.

1. Place your initial idea in the center of your workspace. 
2. Write out every related concept separately. 
3. Put similar ideas together.
4. Use the grouped ideas to create a question. 

In free association, you allow your thoughts to flow freely without interruption. You later review your thoughts and select what is useful/interesting.

• Speaking and listening. Use a recording device like your phone. Talk freely about your topic to yourself or to another person. Later, review your recording and create a research question out of your chat.
• Writing and reading. Write freely without any revisions or editing. Later, review your text and create a research question.

Research questions are the idea you build your assignment around.

Research questions should:

• Define what you will and will not write about
• Not be answered with ‘yes’ or ‘no’
• Require you to take a stance that you must back up with evidence

Research questions are built out around an idea. 

My starting idea is: Virtual Influencers

What I want to know about it: How do they affect what consumers buy?

My possible research question is: How is consumer behavior affected by companies' use of virtual influencers?

If I find I have way too much to write about, I can narrow down my topic more by changing it to something like: How is teenagers' consumer behavior affected by companies' use of virtual influencers?