Choosing a Good Topic for your Research Project

A Guide for Getting Started

The dissertation is an opportunity to enjoy the benefits of your hard work and to apply and consolidate all the knowledge
that you have acquired during your degree program. This presents a chance to go into a chosen specialist area in which
you are interested or enjoy.

Key Features of a Good Topic

A good topic for your research study should be concerned with an issue of current major concern to you and possibly a
chosen organization. It should have sufficient scope and depth to form the basis of a dissertation. It should be
manageable, given your time and resource constraints. It should be relevant to your course. And the issue/s in question
should be generally applicable to one or more organizations providing a context, but of general benefit to others and your
own professional or career development (e.g. to become a specialist in a chosen field/area).
Following are the characteristics of a good research topic:

1. Access - will you be able to obtain the data required for the research?
2. Achievability - can the work be completed in the allocated time?
3. Symmetry of potential outcomes - will the research be of value regardless of the outcome?
4. Student capability - students with low numeracy skills should avoid topics requiring complex statistical analysis.
Students should choose topics that play to their strengths.
5. Value and scope of the research - both students and supervisors are much more likely to be highly motivated if the
outcome of the study is valuable to others.

Attributes of a Successful Dissertation

The following attributes of a good dissertation are modified from the advice given at the University of Western Sydney:

Content

1. A carefully selected relevant issue or problem

2. Clearly defined problem/s or issue/s to be investigated
3. Clearly stated aims
4. An appropriate literature review
5. An appropriate research design to investigate the specified problem area including an awareness of alternative
approaches and a rationale of the chosen methods
6. Consistent and careful application of the adopted methodology
7. Where appropriate an unbiased and adequate sample, and an awareness of how sample size and selection will affect
your conclusions
8. Systematic, objective and efficient analysis of the collected data
9. Relevant conclusions drawn from the data analysis, which are supported by the data and should be compared and
contrasted with the findings of previous studies and put into context.
10. The relevant theory has been integrated well into your dissertation
11. The study should be original
12. The conclusions should be followed by a set of recommendations where appropriate