No one told you that it would be so hard choosing a topic, right? You might feel confused and overwhelmed – after all, the months will roll by quickly and you will have to submit your final topic. So, if you’re one of those who still have not decided on their thesis topic or have just started thinking about it, let us give you some tips.
Your interests: your biggest weapon
Choosing a thesis topic is never easy, after all it’s the biggest project of your entire studies, the work reflecting the past several years of university. Think about what makes you passionate, which subject interested you the most in the previous semesters, what topics made you ask even more questions. This can be your starting point. Writing about something that genuinely fascinates you will help you tremendously on a later stage, the process will be way smoother and enjoyable. Forcing a topic on yourself simply because you’re lost will have its impact later – working on something you’ve never genuinely liked will just turn writing your thesis into a torture.
Even if you cannot find such topics, think about what you love out of the university walls. For example, if you are studying Business and Management but adore fashion, you can easily find a meeting point between those two – and this pretty much applies to almost anything – gaming, football, makeup. Open your mind and embrace the variety you have, sometimes the oddest of topics are the best ones.
Create a list of possibilities
If you’re already aware of your interests and need to find the best topic of the ones you’ve thought about so far, you’re one step closer to your final choice. What do you do when all sound great? There are several options:
Filter them out: you can research on each topic and see if it’s rather innovative or overdone, if it’s doable or the topic is too general. If the topic is too general, let’s say “The Impact of Social Media on the New Generation” you will have troubles. Which impact – psychological, social, financial? Which generation? It is too unspecific, too general and widely overused. Moreover, it has to have an arguable and definable claim.
Ask someone who can help you out: most professors are more than happy to help you out when it comes to this. Find your favourite professor or the one you know is teaching related topics and ask them straight away. It is easy to write an email or reach them on Teams in their opened hours.
Try not getting too “inspired” from the internet
Yes, the internet is quite helpful and resourceful in these matters… but on what cost? Imagine if everyone just chose a random topic they’ve found online just to discover that perhaps someone else have a very similar one. Would be a bummer. Researching on good examples is truly okay, as long as you don’t copy-paste them – your supervisor will probably spot that it cannot be an original idea of yours.
Make sure you have enough resources
If you have a topic in mind, make sure to check if there are enough papers which would support your claims or give you enough data to work with. After all, your thesis shall be heavily backed up by research papers, documents, charts, reports and other study materials. Choosing a topic with little to no reliable sources would ruin the whole point of writing – and even if you try writing, you will soon find out that you don’t have enough data to finish even half of your thesis.
About your thesis supervisor
Make sure that the professor you’ve chosen for a supervisor is the right one. If the topic is not in their field, you’d better find another one as they won’t be able to be as helpful as they could. It is essential to work with the person who knows the most about your chosen topic and would provide you with the most information out there. Surely having great dynamics is important, but the more knowledgeable your supervisor is, the better your thesis will turn out to be.
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