Regardless of the topic you end up doing I take my grad students through a process of discovery to get to their final question. That being the really big leap. We deal in questions that need answering not topics.
I will usually have them write down on a piece of paper a whimsically chosen number of topics they like (25-50 depending on how evil I'm feeling). It really doesn't matter because they have to throw that one away (they don't know that so don't tell them). Then I have them do it again shooting for about 10 topics.
After that little exercise I ask them why are they interesting, what is important about them, what are the intersections between them, what do we know about them, what do we not know about them, what are the questions left unanswered, who drove the research on these topics, who are the main players in the area being studied, is there something special about these topics that cuts across other areas? Oh, and many more questions.
Then I make them write a prospectus tying it all together derived around a question. Usually the question is inelegantly tied around "who, what, where, when, why, how" or a derivative. That is fine. We are choosing a topic not writing the thesis. By now they have started a literature review. They never realize that but I am fine with the results. Upon completion of the topic research they usually refine the question. The question will become their research question, and then I usually have them form a hypothesis in formal language.
At this point they write the literature review.
Then they refine the question, refine the hypothesis. Kick themselves for missing a whole bunch of stuff.
Then they write their methods section. How are they going to study the problem.
Then they refine the question, refine the hypothesis. Kick themselves for missing a whole bunch of stuff.
And then, and only then, is the topic finished.
Of course, we throw all that out from time to time and do it totally differently. Every project, every student, every program is different.
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