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Choosing a Topic: Refining Your Topic

This guide will provide you with tips and strategies for choosing and refining a topic.

Help Me Refine

Below are some resources to help you refinine your topic:

The Thesis Statement

Although you probably started with only a broad idea of what you wanted to write about, after testing your topic and doing background reading you should be able to narrow your focus and write your thesis statement. Here are two examples of narrowing a broad topic to come up with a thesis statement:

Sex Discrimination

  • Discrimination against women in the workplace
    • Women are given fewer opportunities for advancement in the workplace
      • Although all women come up against the “glass ceiling” it is worse for women who are mothers vs. those who are not.

Eating Disorders

  • Anorexia Nervosa
    • Anorexia in teenage girls
      • The media’s portrayal of women contribute significantly to the incidence of anorexia in teenage girls.
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