The selection of a topic is the first important step in preparing a research paper. An inappropriate（欠妥的）decision about a research topic may lead to the failure of the whole project, or at least a waste of time and energy. When we choose a topic, it is advisable to go from the general to the specific in the following way:

At this very initial stage, we should first choose a topic that we are interested in and know something about. It would be much better if we already have some ideas about the topic and feel that we could develop these ideas into a research paper.

We should read as many books or papers as possible to get the information we need for our paper. While reading, we should ask ourselves whether the topic in our minds has already been explored（探讨）quite thoroughly, and whether we can develop it further by offering something new. If the answer is negative（否定的）, we should drop that topic.

Let's say we are interested in Chinese poetry（诗歌）. Obviously, this topic is too big to be dealt with（处理）in our paper. We should narrow down the scope of that topic to something more specific. After we have read some books, we may find that Chinese poetry in the Tang Dynasty, especially the poetry by Li Bai, is worth exploring. So our final research topic may be something like “Nature in Li Bai's Poems.”

The following points may be used as a set of criteria（标准）for our final topic:

①It should be a topic that is meaningful and serious. A research paper should make people think and learn.（题目要有意义、严肃，值得去探讨和学习。）

②It should be a topic which we are able to handle（能够驾驭）. We will not be able to write anything significant on subjects in which we do not have the necessary training. For example, as English majors, BA papers on nuclear physics（核子物理）or chemistry（化学）are not within the range of our abilities.（题目要能够驾驭，不能超出我们的知识范围。）

③ It should be a topic for which sufficient materials are available（能够找到足够的材料）. If we can find only one or two books or articles related to our subject, and if we draw conclusions（下结论）only from them, it is highly probable that our conclusions will not be well-grounded（基础牢固）.（能够找到关于该题目的充足的材料。）

④ It should be a topic that can be treated objectively, a topic that does not involve personal likes or dislikes（个人的好恶）. Suppose we are thinking of writing a paper on our economic reform（经济改革）and draw our conclusion on the basis of the experiences of our family members, relatives and friends, we can hardly write a paper of any significance.（题目要客观，不能将自己的好恶融入其中。）

⑤It should be a topic that is not too topical（关于时事的）. For instance, it would be very difficult for us to write a conclusive paper on the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East（中东）.（题目不能与时事密切相关。）

If the topic we have chosen can meet the above criteria, we can move forward to thenext step.

The following example shows how to restrict the scope and how to work out a suitable topic for a research paper:

We should not be worried if we have two or three topics in mind at this stage. They will be of great help in case there is not as much information available as we hoped on a topic and it is always good to have more topics to choose from.