primary research essay topics

27 Real Primary Research Examples

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

Learn about our Editorial Process

Primary research is a type of academic research that involves collecting new and original data to conduct a study.

Examples of primary research include studies that collect data through interviews, questionnaires, original text analysis, observation, surveys, focus groups, case studies, and ethnography.

It is the opposite of secondary research which involves looking at existing data to identify trends or new insights. Both secondary and primary research are legitimate forms of academic research.

Primary Research Examples

1. interviews.

Interviews involve approaching relevant people and asking them questions to gather their thoughts and opinions on a topic. This can take the form of structured, semi-strutured, and unstructured interviews.

Structured interviews generally do not involve back-and-forth discussion between the researcher and the research participant, while semi-structured and unstructured interviews involve the interviewer asking follow-up questions to dig deeper and elicit more insights.

2. Questionnaires and Surveys

Questionnaires are text-based interviews where a set of questions are written down by the researchers and sent to the research participants. The participants fill out the questionnaires and return them to the researcher.

The researcher then anonymizes the data and analyzes it by looking for trends and patterns across the dataset. They may do this manually or use research tools to find similarities and differences in the responses of the research participants.

A simple questionnaire can take the form of a Likert scale which involves asking a research participant to circle their opinion on a set of pre-determined responses (e.g. ‘Very Likely, Likely, Unlikely, Very Unlikely’). Other questionnaires require participants to write detailed paragraphs responding to questions which can then be analyzed.

One benefit of surveys over interviews is that it’s easier to gather large datasets.

3. Control Group Analysis

Control group analyses involve separating research participants into two groups: the control group and the experimental group.

An intervention is applied to the experimental group. Researchers then observe the results and compare them to the control group to find out the effects of the intervention.

This sort of research is very common in medical research. For example, a new pill on the market might be used on two groups of sick patients to see whether the pill was effective in improving one group’s condition. If so, it may receive approval to go into the market.

4. Observation Studies

Observational studies involve the researchers entering a research setting and recording their naturalistic observations of what they see. These observations can then form the basis of a thesis.

Longer-term observation studies where the researcher is embedded in a community are called ethnographic studies.

Tools for observation studies include simple pen-and-paper written vignettes about a topic, recording with the consent of research participants, or using field measuring devices.

Observational studies in fields like anthropology can lead to rich and detailed explanations of complex phenomena through a process called thick description . However, they’re inherently qualitative, subjective , and small-case studies that often make it difficult to make future predictions or hard scientific findings.

Another research limitation is that the presence of the researcher can sometimes affect the behavior of the people or animals being observed.

Go Deeper: 15 Ethnography Examples

5. Focus Groups

Focus groups are similar to interviews, but involve small groups of research participants interacting with the interviewer and, sometimes, one another.

Focus group research is common, for example, in political research, where political parties commission independent research organizations to collect data about the electorate’s perceptions of the candidates. This can help inform them of how to more effectively position the candidate in advertising and press stops.

The biggest benefit of focus group studies is that they can gather qualitative information from a wider range of research participants than one-to-one interviews. However, the downside is that research participants tend to influence each others’ responses.

See More: Examples of Focus Groups

6. Online Surveys

Online surveys are similar in purpose to offline questionnaires and surveys, but have unique benefits and limitations.

Like offline surveys and questionnaires, they can be in the form of written responses, multiple choice, and Likert scales.

However, they have some key benefits including: capacity to cast a wide net, ease of snowball sampling, and ease of finding participants.

These strengths also present some potential weaknesses: poorly designed online surveys may be corrupted if the sample is not sufficiently vetted and only distributed to non-representative sample sets (of course, this can be offset, depending on the study design).

7. Action Research

Action research involves practitioners conducting just-in-time research in an authentic setting to improve their own practice. The researcher is an active participant who studies the effects of interventions.

It sits in contrast to other forms of primary research in this list, which are mostly conducted by researchers who attempt to detach themselves from the subject of study. Action research, on the other hand, involves a researcher who is also a participant.

Action research is most commonly used in classrooms, where teachers take the role of researchers to improve their own teaching and learning practices. However, action research can be used in other fields as well, particularly healthcare and social work.

Go Deeper: 21 Action Research Examples

8. Discourse and Textual Analysis

Discourse and textual analyses are studies of language and text. They could involve, for example, the collection of a selection of newspaper articles published within a defined timeframe to identify the ideological leanings of the newspapers.

This sort of analysis can also explore the language use of media to study how media constructs stereotypes. The quintessential example is the study of gender identities is Disney texts, which has historically shown how Disney texts promote and normalize gender roles that children could internalize.

Textual analysis is often confused as a type of secondary research. However, as long as the texts are primary sources examined from scratch, it should be considered primary research and not the analysis of an existing dataset.

Go Deeper: 21 Discourse Analysis Examples

9. Multimodal, Visual, and Semiotic Analysis

Discourse and textual analyses traditionally focused on words and written text. But with the increasing presence of visual texts in our lives, scholars had to come up with primary research studies that involved the analysis of multimodal texts .

This led to studies such as semiotics and multimodal discourse analysis. This is still considered primary research because it involves the direct analysis of primary data (such as pictures, posters, and movies).

While these studies tend to borrow significantly from written text analysis, they include methods such as social semiotic to explore how signs and symbols garner meaning in social contexts. This enables scholars to examine, for example, children’s drawings through to famous artworks.

Often, primary research is a more highly-regarded type of research than secondary research because it involves gathering new data.

However, secondary research should not be discounted: the synthesis, categorization, and critique of an existing corpus of research can reveal excellent new insights and help to consolidate academic knowledge and even challenge longstanding assumptions .

References for the mentioned studies (APA Style)

Atack, L., & Rankin, J. (2002). A descriptive study of registered nurses’ experiences with web‐based learning. Journal of Advanced Nursing , 40 (4), 457-465.

Baughcum, A. E., Burklow, K. A., Deeks, C. M., Powers, S. W., & Whitaker, R. C. (1998). Maternal feeding practices and childhood obesity: a focus group study of low-income mothers. Archives of pediatrics & adolescent medicine , 152 (10), 1010-1014.

Calvert, M., & Sheen, Y. (2015). Task-based language learning and teaching: An action-research study. Language Teaching Research , 19 (2), 226-244.

Coker, D. L., Farley-Ripple, E., Jackson, A. F., Wen, H., MacArthur, C. A., & Jennings, A. S. (2016). Writing instruction in first grade: An observational study. Reading and Writing , 29 (5), 793-832.

Cossrow, N. H., Jeffery, R. W., & McGuire, M. T. (2001). Understanding weight stigmatization: A focus group study. Journal of nutrition education , 33 (4), 208-214.

Costello, J. (2006). Dying well: nurses’ experiences of ‘good and bad’deaths in hospital. Journal of advanced nursing , 54 (5), 594-601.

Deckx, L., Mitchell, G., Rosenberg, J., Kelly, M., Carmont, S. A., & Yates, P. (2019). General practitioners’ engagement in end-of-life care: a semi-structured interview study. BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care .

Drew, C. (2013). Elitism for sale: Promoting the elite school online in the competitive educational marketplace. Australian Journal of Education , 57 (2), 174-184.

Erdener, M. A., & Knoeppel, R. C. (2018). Parents’ Perceptions of Their Involvement in Schooling. International Journal of Research in Education and Science , 4 (1), 1-13.

Felicia, O. (2021). A social semiotic analysis of gender power in Nigeria’s newspaper political cartoons. Social Semiotics , 31 (2), 266-281.

Gardner, C. D., Trepanowski, J. F., Del Gobbo, L. C., Hauser, M. E., Rigdon, J., Ioannidis, J. P., … & King, A. C. (2018). Effect of low-fat vs low-carbohydrate diet on 12-month weight loss in overweight adults and the association with genotype pattern or insulin secretion: the DIETFITS randomized clinical trial. Jama , 319 (7), 667-679.

Groves, M. M., & Zemel, P. C. (2000). Instructional technology adoption in higher education: An action research case study. International Journal of Instructional Media , 27 (1), 57.

Gullifer, J., & Tyson, G. A. (2010). Exploring university students’ perceptions of plagiarism: A focus group study. Studies in Higher Education , 35 (4), 463-481.

Karlsson, J., & Juslin, P. N. (2008). Musical expression: An observational study of instrumental teaching. Psychology of music , 36 (3), 309-334.

Liu, D., Huang, Y., Huang, C., Yang, S., Wei, X., Zhang, P., … & Zhang, H. (2022). Calorie restriction with or without time-restricted eating in weight loss. New England Journal of Medicine , 386 (16), 1495-1504.

Martin, F., & Bolliger, D. U. (2018). Engagement matters: Student perceptions on the importance of engagement strategies in the online learning environment. Online Learning , 22 (1), 205-222.

Munro, M. (2018). House price inflation in the news: a critical discourse analysis of newspaper coverage in the UK. Housing Studies , 33 (7), 1085-1105.

O’bannon, B. W., & Thomas, K. (2014). Teacher perceptions of using mobile phones in the classroom: Age matters!. Computers & Education , 74 , 15-25.

Olsen, M., Udo, C., Dahlberg, L., & Boström, A. M. (2022). Older Persons’ Views on Important Values in Swedish Home Care Service: A Semi-Structured Interview Study. Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare , 15 , 967.

Ravn, I. M., Frederiksen, K., & Beedholm, K. (2016). The chronic responsibility: a critical discourse analysis of Danish chronic care policies. Qualitative Health Research , 26 (4), 545-554.

Sacks, F. M., Bray, G. A., Carey, V. J., Smith, S. R., Ryan, D. H., Anton, S. D., … & Williamson, D. A. (2009). Comparison of weight-loss diets with different compositions of fat, protein, and carbohydrates. New England Journal of Medicine , 360 (9), 859-873.

Saltmarsh, S., Chapman, A., Campbell, M., & Drew, C. (2015). Putting “structure within the space”: Spatially un/responsive pedagogic practices in open-plan learning environments. Educational Review , 67 (3), 315-327.

Samaras, G., Bonoti, F., & Christidou, V. (2012). Exploring children’s perceptions of scientists through drawings and interviews. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences , 46 , 1541-1546.

Sengul, K. (2019). Critical discourse analysis in political communication research: a case study of right-wing populist discourse in Australia. Communication Research and Practice , 5 (4), 376-392.

Smahel, D., Machackova, H., Mascheroni, G., Dedkova, L., Staksrud, E., Ólafsson, K., … & Hasebrink, U. (2020). EU Kids Online 2020: Survey results from 19 countries.

Stawarz, K., Preist, C., & Coyle, D. (2019). Use of smartphone apps, social media, and web-based resources to support mental health and well-being: online survey. JMIR mental health , 6 (7), e12546.Towns, M. H., Kreke, K., & Fields, A. (2000). An action research project: Student perspectives on small-group learning in chemistry. Journal of Chemical Education , 77 (1), 111.

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 10 Reasons you’re Perpetually Single
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 20 Montessori Toddler Bedrooms (Design Inspiration)
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 21 Montessori Homeschool Setups
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 101 Hidden Talents Examples

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Choose Your Test

• Search Blogs By Category
• College Admissions
• AP and IB Exams
• GPA and Coursework

113 Great Research Paper Topics

General Education

One of the hardest parts of writing a research paper can be just finding a good topic to write about. Fortunately we've done the hard work for you and have compiled a list of 113 interesting research paper topics. They've been organized into ten categories and cover a wide range of subjects so you can easily find the best topic for you.

In addition to the list of good research topics, we've included advice on what makes a good research paper topic and how you can use your topic to start writing a great paper.

What Makes a Good Research Paper Topic?

Not all research paper topics are created equal, and you want to make sure you choose a great topic before you start writing. Below are the three most important factors to consider to make sure you choose the best research paper topics.

#1: It's Something You're Interested In

A paper is always easier to write if you're interested in the topic, and you'll be more motivated to do in-depth research and write a paper that really covers the entire subject. Even if a certain research paper topic is getting a lot of buzz right now or other people seem interested in writing about it, don't feel tempted to make it your topic unless you genuinely have some sort of interest in it as well.

#2: There's Enough Information to Write a Paper

Even if you come up with the absolute best research paper topic and you're so excited to write about it, you won't be able to produce a good paper if there isn't enough research about the topic. This can happen for very specific or specialized topics, as well as topics that are too new to have enough research done on them at the moment. Easy research paper topics will always be topics with enough information to write a full-length paper.

Trying to write a research paper on a topic that doesn't have much research on it is incredibly hard, so before you decide on a topic, do a bit of preliminary searching and make sure you'll have all the information you need to write your paper.

#3: It Fits Your Teacher's Guidelines

Don't get so carried away looking at lists of research paper topics that you forget any requirements or restrictions your teacher may have put on research topic ideas. If you're writing a research paper on a health-related topic, deciding to write about the impact of rap on the music scene probably won't be allowed, but there may be some sort of leeway. For example, if you're really interested in current events but your teacher wants you to write a research paper on a history topic, you may be able to choose a topic that fits both categories, like exploring the relationship between the US and North Korea. No matter what, always get your research paper topic approved by your teacher first before you begin writing.

113 Good Research Paper Topics

Below are 113 good research topics to help you get you started on your paper. We've organized them into ten categories to make it easier to find the type of research paper topics you're looking for.

Arts/Culture

• Discuss the main differences in art from the Italian Renaissance and the Northern Renaissance .
• Analyze the impact a famous artist had on the world.
• How is sexism portrayed in different types of media (music, film, video games, etc.)? Has the amount/type of sexism changed over the years?
• How has the music of slaves brought over from Africa shaped modern American music?
• How has rap music evolved in the past decade?
• How has the portrayal of minorities in the media changed?

Current Events

• What have been the impacts of China's one child policy?
• How have the goals of feminists changed over the decades?
• How has the Trump presidency changed international relations?
• Analyze the history of the relationship between the United States and North Korea.
• What factors contributed to the current decline in the rate of unemployment?
• What have been the impacts of states which have increased their minimum wage?
• How do US immigration laws compare to immigration laws of other countries?
• How have the US's immigration laws changed in the past few years/decades?
• How has the Black Lives Matter movement affected discussions and view about racism in the US?
• What impact has the Affordable Care Act had on healthcare in the US?
• What factors contributed to the UK deciding to leave the EU (Brexit)?
• What factors contributed to China becoming an economic power?
• Discuss the history of Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies  (some of which tokenize the S&P 500 Index on the blockchain) .
• Do students in schools that eliminate grades do better in college and their careers?
• Do students from wealthier backgrounds score higher on standardized tests?
• Do students who receive free meals at school get higher grades compared to when they weren't receiving a free meal?
• Do students who attend charter schools score higher on standardized tests than students in public schools?
• Do students learn better in same-sex classrooms?
• How does giving each student access to an iPad or laptop affect their studies?
• What are the benefits and drawbacks of the Montessori Method ?
• Do children who attend preschool do better in school later on?
• What was the impact of the No Child Left Behind act?
• How does the US education system compare to education systems in other countries?
• What impact does mandatory physical education classes have on students' health?
• Which methods are most effective at reducing bullying in schools?
• Do homeschoolers who attend college do as well as students who attended traditional schools?
• Does offering tenure increase or decrease quality of teaching?
• How does college debt affect future life choices of students?
• Should graduate students be able to form unions?

• What are different ways to lower gun-related deaths in the US?
• How and why have divorce rates changed over time?
• Is affirmative action still necessary in education and/or the workplace?
• Should physician-assisted suicide be legal?
• How has stem cell research impacted the medical field?
• How can human trafficking be reduced in the United States/world?
• Should people be able to donate organs in exchange for money?
• Which types of juvenile punishment have proven most effective at preventing future crimes?
• Has the increase in US airport security made passengers safer?
• Analyze the immigration policies of certain countries and how they are similar and different from one another.
• Several states have legalized recreational marijuana. What positive and negative impacts have they experienced as a result?
• Do tariffs increase the number of domestic jobs?
• Which prison reforms have proven most effective?
• Should governments be able to censor certain information on the internet?
• Which methods/programs have been most effective at reducing teen pregnancy?
• What are the benefits and drawbacks of the Keto diet?
• How effective are different exercise regimes for losing weight and maintaining weight loss?
• How do the healthcare plans of various countries differ from each other?
• What are the most effective ways to treat depression ?
• What are the pros and cons of genetically modified foods?
• Which methods are most effective for improving memory?
• What can be done to lower healthcare costs in the US?
• What factors contributed to the current opioid crisis?
• Analyze the history and impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic .
• Are low-carbohydrate or low-fat diets more effective for weight loss?
• How much exercise should the average adult be getting each week?
• Which methods are most effective to get parents to vaccinate their children?
• What are the pros and cons of clean needle programs?
• How does stress affect the body?
• Discuss the history of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
• What were the causes and effects of the Salem Witch Trials?
• Who was responsible for the Iran-Contra situation?
• How has New Orleans and the government's response to natural disasters changed since Hurricane Katrina?
• What events led to the fall of the Roman Empire?
• What were the impacts of British rule in India ?
• Was the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki necessary?
• What were the successes and failures of the women's suffrage movement in the United States?
• What were the causes of the Civil War?
• How did Abraham Lincoln's assassination impact the country and reconstruction after the Civil War?
• Which factors contributed to the colonies winning the American Revolution?
• What caused Hitler's rise to power?
• Discuss how a specific invention impacted history.
• What led to Cleopatra's fall as ruler of Egypt?
• How has Japan changed and evolved over the centuries?
• What were the causes of the Rwandan genocide ?

• Why did Martin Luther decide to split with the Catholic Church?
• Analyze the history and impact of a well-known cult (Jonestown, Manson family, etc.)
• How did the sexual abuse scandal impact how people view the Catholic Church?
• How has the Catholic church's power changed over the past decades/centuries?
• What are the causes behind the rise in atheism/ agnosticism in the United States?
• What were the influences in Siddhartha's life resulted in him becoming the Buddha?
• How has media portrayal of Islam/Muslims changed since September 11th?

Science/Environment

• How has the earth's climate changed in the past few decades?
• How has the use and elimination of DDT affected bird populations in the US?
• Analyze how the number and severity of natural disasters have increased in the past few decades.
• Analyze deforestation rates in a certain area or globally over a period of time.
• How have past oil spills changed regulations and cleanup methods?
• How has the Flint water crisis changed water regulation safety?
• What are the pros and cons of fracking?
• What impact has the Paris Climate Agreement had so far?
• What have NASA's biggest successes and failures been?
• How can we improve access to clean water around the world?
• Does ecotourism actually have a positive impact on the environment?
• Should the US rely on nuclear energy more?
• What can be done to save amphibian species currently at risk of extinction?
• What impact has climate change had on coral reefs?
• How are black holes created?
• Are teens who spend more time on social media more likely to suffer anxiety and/or depression?
• How will the loss of net neutrality affect internet users?
• Analyze the history and progress of self-driving vehicles.
• How has the use of drones changed surveillance and warfare methods?
• Has social media made people more or less connected?
• What progress has currently been made with artificial intelligence ?
• Do smartphones increase or decrease workplace productivity?
• What are the most effective ways to use technology in the classroom?
• How is Google search affecting our intelligence?
• When is the best age for a child to begin owning a smartphone?
• Has frequent texting reduced teen literacy rates?

How to Write a Great Research Paper

Even great research paper topics won't give you a great research paper if you don't hone your topic before and during the writing process. Follow these three tips to turn good research paper topics into great papers.

#1: Figure Out Your Thesis Early

Before you start writing a single word of your paper, you first need to know what your thesis will be. Your thesis is a statement that explains what you intend to prove/show in your paper. Every sentence in your research paper will relate back to your thesis, so you don't want to start writing without it!

As some examples, if you're writing a research paper on if students learn better in same-sex classrooms, your thesis might be "Research has shown that elementary-age students in same-sex classrooms score higher on standardized tests and report feeling more comfortable in the classroom."

If you're writing a paper on the causes of the Civil War, your thesis might be "While the dispute between the North and South over slavery is the most well-known cause of the Civil War, other key causes include differences in the economies of the North and South, states' rights, and territorial expansion."

#2: Back Every Statement Up With Research

Remember, this is a research paper you're writing, so you'll need to use lots of research to make your points. Every statement you give must be backed up with research, properly cited the way your teacher requested. You're allowed to include opinions of your own, but they must also be supported by the research you give.

#3: Do Your Research Before You Begin Writing

You don't want to start writing your research paper and then learn that there isn't enough research to back up the points you're making, or, even worse, that the research contradicts the points you're trying to make!

Get most of your research on your good research topics done before you begin writing. Then use the research you've collected to create a rough outline of what your paper will cover and the key points you're going to make. This will help keep your paper clear and organized, and it'll ensure you have enough research to produce a strong paper.

What's Next?

Are you also learning about dynamic equilibrium in your science class? We break this sometimes tricky concept down so it's easy to understand in our complete guide to dynamic equilibrium .

Thinking about becoming a nurse practitioner? Nurse practitioners have one of the fastest growing careers in the country, and we have all the information you need to know about what to expect from nurse practitioner school .

Want to know the fastest and easiest ways to convert between Fahrenheit and Celsius? We've got you covered! Check out our guide to the best ways to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit (or vice versa).

These recommendations are based solely on our knowledge and experience. If you purchase an item through one of our links, PrepScholar may receive a commission.

Trending Now

How to Get Into Harvard and the Ivy League

How to Get a Perfect 4.0 GPA

How to Write an Amazing College Essay

What Exactly Are Colleges Looking For?

ACT vs. SAT: Which Test Should You Take?

When should you take the SAT or ACT?

Get Your Free

Find Your Target SAT Score

Free Complete Official SAT Practice Tests

How to Get a Perfect SAT Score, by an Expert Full Scorer

Score 800 on SAT Math

Score 800 on SAT Reading and Writing

How to Improve Your Low SAT Score

Score 600 on SAT Math

Score 600 on SAT Reading and Writing

Find Your Target ACT Score

Complete Official Free ACT Practice Tests

How to Get a Perfect ACT Score, by a 36 Full Scorer

Get a 36 on ACT English

Get a 36 on ACT Math

Get a 36 on ACT Reading

Get a 36 on ACT Science

How to Improve Your Low ACT Score

Get a 24 on ACT English

Get a 24 on ACT Math

Get a 24 on ACT Reading

Get a 24 on ACT Science

Stay Informed

Get the latest articles and test prep tips!

Christine graduated from Michigan State University with degrees in Environmental Biology and Geography and received her Master's from Duke University. In high school she scored in the 99th percentile on the SAT and was named a National Merit Finalist. She has taught English and biology in several countries.

Ask a Question Below

Have any questions about this article or other topics? Ask below and we'll reply!

• Writing Center
• Current Students
• Online Only Students
• Faculty & Staff
• Parents & Family
• Alumni & Friends
• Community & Business
• Student Life
• Video Introduction
• Become a Writing Assistant
• All Writers
• Graduate Students
• ELL Students
• Campus and Community
• Testimonials
• Encouraging Writing Center Use
• Incentives and Requirements
• Open Educational Resources
• How We Help
• Get to Know Us
• Conversation Partners Program
• Weekly Updates
• Workshop Series
• Professors Talk Writing
• Computer Lab
• Starting a Writing Center
• A Note to Instructors
• Annotated Bibliography
• Literature Review
• Research Proposal
• Argument Essay
• Rhetorical Analysis

Introduction to Primary Research: Observations, Surveys, and Interviews

Primary Research: Definitions and Overview

   How research is defined varies widely from field to field, and as you progress through your college career, your coursework will teach you much more about what it means to be a researcher within your field.* For example, engineers, who focus on applying scientific knowledge to develop designs, processes, and objects, conduct research using simulations, mathematical models, and a variety of tests to see how well their designs work. Sociologists conduct research using surveys, interviews, observations, and statistical analysis to better understand people, societies, and cultures. Graphic designers conduct research through locating images for reference for their artwork and engaging in background research on clients and companies to best serve their needs. Historians conduct research by examining archival materials—newspapers, journals, letters, and other surviving texts—and through conducting oral history interviews. Research is not limited to what has already been written or found at the library, also known as secondary research. Rather, individuals conducting research are producing the articles and reports found in a library database or in a book. Primary research, the focus of this essay, is research that is collected firsthand rather than found in a book, database, or journal.

   Primary research is often based on principles of the scientific method, a theory of investigation first developed by John Stuart Mill in the nineteenth century in his book Philosophy of the Scientific Method .  Although the application of the scientific method varies from field to field, the general principles of the scientific method allow researchers to learn more about the world and observable phenomena. Using the scientific method, researchers develop research questions or hypotheses and collect data on events, objects, or people that is measurable, observable, and replicable. The ultimate goal in conducting primary research is to learn about something new that can be confirmed by others and to eliminate our own biases in the process.

Essay Overview and Student Examples

     The essay begins by providing an overview of ethical considerations when conducting primary research, and then covers the stages that you will go through in your primary research: planning, collecting, analyzing, and writing. After the four stages comes an introduction to three common ways of conducting primary research in first year writing classes:

Observations . Observing and measuring the world around you, including observations of people and other measurable events.

Interviews . Asking participants questions in a one-on-one or small group setting.

Surveys . Asking participants about their opinions and behaviors through a short questionnaire.

In addition, we will be examining two student projects that used substantial portions of primary research:

    Derek Laan, a nutrition major at Purdue University, wanted to learn more about student eating habits on campus. His primary re-search included observations of the campus food courts, student behavior while in the food courts, and a survey of students’ daily food intake. His secondary research included looking at national student eating trends on college campuses, information from the United States Food and Drug Administration, and books on healthy eating.

    Jared Schwab, an agricultural and biological engineering major at Purdue, was interested in learning more about how writing and communication took place in his field. His primary research included interviewing a professional engineer and a student who was a senior majoring in engineering. His secondary research included examining journals, books, professional organizations, and writing guides within the field of engineering.

Ethics of Primary Research

   Both projects listed above included primary research on human participants; therefore, Derek and Jared both had to consider research ethics throughout their primary research process. As Earl Babbie writes in The Practice of Social Research , throughout the early and middle parts of the twentieth century researchers took advantage of participants and treated them unethically. During World War II, Nazi doctors performed heinous experiments on prisoners without their consent, while in the U.S., a number of medical and psychological experiments on caused patients undue mental and physical trauma and, in some cases, death. Because of these and other similar events, many nations have established ethical laws and guidelines for researchers who work with human participants. In the United States, the guidelines for the ethical treatment of human research participants are described in The Belmont Report , released in 1979. Today, universities have Institutional Review Boards (or IRBs) that oversee research. Students conducting research as part of a class may not need permission from the university’s IRB, although they still need to ensure that they follow ethical guidelines in research. The following provides a brief overview of ethical considerations:

• Voluntary participation . The Belmont Report suggests that, in most cases, you need to get permission from people before you involve them in any primary research you are conducting. If you are doing a survey or interview, your participants must first agree to fill out your survey or to be interviewed. Consent for observations can be more complicated, and is dis-cussed later in the essay.

Confidentiality and anonymity . Your participants may reveal embarrassing or potentially damaging information such as racist comments or unconventional behavior. In these cases, you should keep your participants’ identities anonymous when writing your results. An easy way to do this is to create a “pseudonym” (or false name) for them so that their identity is protected.

Researcher bias . There is little point in collecting data and learning about something if you already think you know the answer! Bias might be present in the way you ask questions, the way you take notes, or the conclusions you draw from the data you collect.

   The above are only three of many considerations when involving human participants in your primary research. For a complete under-standing of ethical considerations please refer to The Belmont Report .

   Now that we have considered the ethical implications of research, we will examine how to formulate research questions and plan your primary research project.

Planning Your Primary Research Project

   The primary research process is quite similar to the writing process, and you can draw upon your knowledge of the writing process to understand the steps involved in a primary research project. Just like in the writing process, a successful primary research project begins with careful planning and background research. This section first describes how to create a research timeline to help plan your research. It then walks you through the planning stages by examining when primary research is useful or appropriate for your first year composition course, narrowing down a topic, and developing research questions.

The Research Timeline

   When you begin to conduct any kind of primary research, creating a timeline will help keep you on task. Because students conducting primary research usually focus on the collection of data itself, they often overlook the equally important areas of planning (invention), analyzing data, and writing. To help manage your time, you should create a research timeline, such as the sample timeline presented here.

When Primary Research Is Useful or Appropriate

   In Evaluating Scientific Research: Separating Fact from Fiction , Fred Leavitt explains that primary research is useful for questions that can be answered through asking others and direct observation. For first year writing courses, primary research is particularly useful when you want to learn about a problem that does not have a wealth of published information. This may be because the problem is a recent event or it is something not commonly studied. For example, if you are writing a paper on a new political issue, such as changes in tax laws or healthcare, you might not be able to find a wealth of peer-reviewed research because the issue is only several weeks old. You may find it necessary to collect some of your own data on the issue to supplement what you found at the library. Primary research is also useful when you are studying a local problem or learning how a larger issue plays out at the local level. Although you might be able to find information on national statistics for healthy eating, whether or not those statistics are representative of your college campus is something that you can learn through primary research.

   However, not all research questions and topics are appropriate for primary research. As Fred Leavitt writes, questions of an ethical, philosophical, or metaphysical nature are not appropriate because these questions are not testable or observable. For example, the question “Does an afterlife exist?” is not a question that can be answered with primary research. However, the question “How many people in my community believe in an afterlife?” is something that primary research can answer.

Narrowing Your Topic

   Just like the writing process, you should start your primary research process with secondary (library) research to learn more about what is already known and what gaps you need to fill with your own data. As you learn more about the topic, you can narrow down your interest area and eventually develop a research question or hypothesis, just as you would with a secondary research paper.

Developing Research Questions or Hypotheses

   As John Stuart Mill describes, primary research can use both inductive and deductive approaches, and the type approach is usually based on the field of inquiry. Some fields use deductive reasoning , where researchers start with a hypothesis or general conclusion and then collect specific data to support or refute their hypothesis. Other fields use inductive reasoning , where researchers start with a question and collect information that eventually leads to a conclusion.

   Once you have spent some time reviewing the secondary research on your topic, you are ready to write a primary research question or hypothesis. A research question or hypothesis should be something that is specific, narrow, and discoverable through primary research methods. Just like a thesis statement for a paper, if your research question or hypothesis is too broad, your research will be unfocused and your data will be difficult to analyze and write about. Here is a set of sample research questions:

Poor Research Question : What do college students think of politics and the economy?

Revised Research Question : What do students at Purdue University believe about the current economic crisis in terms of economic recoverability?

   The poor research question is unspecific as to what group of students the researcher is interested in—i.e. students in the U.S.? In a particular state? At their university? The poor research question was also too broad; terms like “politics” and the “economy” cover too much ground for a single project. The revised question narrows down the topic to students at a particular university and focuses on a specific issue related to the economy: economic recoverability. The research question could also be rephrased as a testable hypothesis using deductive reasoning: “Purdue University college students are well informed about economic recoverability plans.” Because they were approaching their projects in an exploratory, inductive manner, both Derek and Jared chose to ask research questions:

Derek: Are students’ eating habits at Purdue University healthy or unhealthy? What are the causes of students’ eating behavior?

Jared: What are the major features of writing and communication in agricultural and biological engineering? What are the major controversies? 

   A final step in working with a research question or hypothesis is determining what key terms you are using and how you will define them. Before conducting his research, Derek had to define the terms “healthy” and “unhealthy”; for this, he used the USDA’s Food Pyramid as a guide. Similarly, part of what Jared focused on in his interviews was learning more about how agricultural and biological engineers defined terms like “writing” and “communication.” Derek and Jared thought carefully about the terms within their research questions and how these terms might be measured. 

Choosing a Data Collection Method 

    Once you have formulated a research question or hypothesis, you will need to make decisions about what kind of data you can collect that will best address your research topic. Derek chose to examine eating habits by observing both what students ate at lunch and surveying students about eating behavior. Jared decided that in-depth interviews with experienced individuals in his field would provide him with the best information.

   To choose a data collection method for your research question, read through the next sections on observations, interviews, and surveys.

Observations

   Observations have lead to some of the most important scientific discoveries in human history. Charles Darwin used observations of the animal and marine life at the Galapagos Islands to help him formulate his theory of evolution that he describes in On the Origin of Species . Today, social scientists, natural scientists, engineers, computer scientists, educational researchers, and many others use observations as a primary research method.

   Observations can be conducted on nearly any subject matter, and the kinds of observations you will do depend on your research question. You might observe traffic or parking patterns on campus to get a sense of what improvements could be made. You might observe clouds, plants, or other natural phenomena. If you choose to observe people, you will have several additional considerations including the manner in which you will observe them and gain their consent.

   If you are observing people, you can choose between two common ways to observe: participant observation and unobtrusive observation. Participant observation is a common method within ethnographic research in sociology and anthropology. In this kind of observation, a researcher may interact with participants and become part of their community. Margaret Mead, a famous anthropologist, spent extended periods of time living in, and interacting with, communities that she studied. Conversely, in unobtrusive observation, you do not interact with participants but rather simply record their behavior. Although in most circumstances people must volunteer to be participants in research, in some cases it is acceptable to not let participants know you are observing them. In places that people perceive as public, such as a campus food court or a shopping mall, people do not expect privacy, and so it is generally acceptable to observe without participant consent. In places that people perceive as private, which can include a church, home, classroom, or even an intimate conversation at a restaurant, participant consent should be sought. 

   The second issue about participant consent in terms of unobtrusive observation is whether or not getting consent is feasible for the study. If you are observing people in a busy airport, bus station, or campus food court, getting participant consent may be next to impossible. In Derek’s study of student eating habits on campus, he went to the campus food courts during meal times and observed students purchasing food. Obtaining participant consent for his observations would have been next to impossible because hundreds of students were coming through the food court during meal times. Since Derek’s research was in a place that participants would perceive as public, it was not practical to get their consent, and since his data was anonymous, he did not violate their privacy.

Eliminating Bias in Your Observation Notes

The ethical concern of being unbiased is important in recording your observations. You need to be aware of the difference between an observation (recording exactly what you see) and an interpretation (making assumptions and judgments about what you see). When you observe, you should focus first on only the events that are directly observable. Consider the following two example entries in an observation log:

• The student sitting in the dining hall enjoys his greasy, oil-soaked pizza. He is clearly oblivious of the calorie content and damage it may do to his body.
• The student sits in the dining hall. As he eats his piece of pizza, which drips oil, he says to a friend, “This pizza is good.”

The first entry is biased and demonstrates judgment about the event. First, the observer makes assumptions about the internal state of the student when she writes “enjoys” and “clearly oblivious to the calorie content.” From an observer’s standpoint, there is no way of ascertaining what the student may or may not know about pizza’s nutritional value nor how much the student enjoys the pizza. The second entry provides only the details and facts that are observable.

   To avoid bias in your observations, you can use something called a “double-entry notebook.” This is a type of observation log that encourages you to separate your observations (the facts) from your feelings and judgments about the facts.

• Observations Thoughts
• The student sits in the dining hall. As he eats his piece of pizza, which drips oil, he says to a friend, "this pizza is good."  It seems like the student really enjoys the high-calorie-content pizza. 
• I observed cash register #1 for 15 minutes. During that time, 22 students paid for meals. Of those 22 students, 15 grabbed a candy bar or granola bar. 3 of the 22 students had a piece of fruit on their plate Fruit is less accessible than candy bars (it is further back in the dining court). Is this why more students are reaching for candy bars?

Figure 3: Two sample entries from a double-entry notebook.

   Observations are only one strategy in collecting primary research. You may also want to ask people directly about their behaviors, beliefs, or attitudes—and for this you will need to use surveys or interviews.

Surveys and Interviews: Question Creation

Sometimes it is very difficult for a researcher to gain all of the necessary information through observations alone. Along with his observations of the dining halls, Derek wanted to know what students ate in a typical day, and so he used a survey to have them keep track of their eating habits. Likewise, Jared wanted to learn about writing and communication in engineering and decided to draw upon expert knowledge by asking experienced individuals within the field.

   Interviews and surveys are two ways that you can gather information about people’s beliefs or behaviors. With these methods, the information you collect is not first-hand (like an observation) but rather “self-reported” data, or data collected in an indirect manner. William Shadish, Thomas Cook, and Donald Campbell argued that people are inherently biased about how they see the world and may report their own actions in a more favorable way than they may actually behave. Despite the issues in self-reported data, surveys and interviews are an excellent way to gather data for your primary research project.

Survey or Interview? 

How do you choose between conducting a survey or an interview? It depends on what kind of information you are looking for. You should use surveys if you want to learn about a general trend in people’s opinions, experiences, and behavior. Surveys are particularly useful to find small amounts of information from a wider selection of people in the hopes of making a general claim. Interviews are best used when you want to learn detailed information from a few specific people. Interviews are also particularly useful if you want to interview experts about their opinions, as Jared did. In sum, use interviews to gain de-tails from a few people, and surveys to learn general patterns from many people.

Writing Good Questions

One of the greatest challenges in conducting surveys and interviews is writing good questions. As a researcher, you are always trying to eliminate bias, and the questions you ask need to be unbiased and clear. Here are some suggestions on writing good questions:

Ask about One Thing at a Time

A poorly written question can contain multiple questions, which can confuse participants or lead them to answer only part of the question you are asking. This is called a “double-barreled question” in journalism. The following questions are taken from Jared’s research:

Poor question: What kinds of problems are being faced in the field today and where do you see the search for solutions to these problems going?

Revised question #1: What kinds of problems are being faced in the field today?

Revised question #2: Where do you see the search for solutions to these problems going?

Avoid Leading Questions

A leading question is one where you prompt the participant to respond in a particular way, which can create bias in the answers given:

Leading question: The economy is clearly in a crisis, wouldn’t you agree?

Revised question: Do you believe the economy is currently in a crisis? Why or why not?

Understand When to Use Open and Closed Questions

Closed questions, or questions that have yes/no or other limited responses, should be used in surveys. However, avoid these kinds of questions in interviews because they discourage the interviewee from going into depth. The question sample above, “Do you believe the economy currently is in a crisis?” could be answered with a simple yes or no, which could keep a participant from talking more about the issue. The “why or why not?” portion of the question asks the participant to elaborate. On a survey, the question “Do you believe the economy currently is in a crisis?” is a useful question because you can easily count the number of yes and no answers and make a general claim about participant responses.

Write Clear Questions

When you write questions, make sure they are clear, concise, and to the point. Questions that are too long, use unfamiliar vocabulary, or are unclear may confuse participants and you will not get quality responses.

Now that question creation has been addressed, we will next examine specific considerations for interviews and surveys.

Interviews, or question and answer sessions with one or more people, are an excellent way to learn in-depth information from a person for your primary research project. This section presents information on how to conduct a successful interview, including choosing the right person, ways of interviewing, recording your interview, interview locations, and transcribing your interview.

Choosing the Right Person

One of the keys to a successful interview is choosing the right person to interview. Think about whom you would like to interview and whom you might know. Do not be afraid to ask people you do not know for interviews. When asking, simply tell them what the interview will be about, what the interview is for, and how much time it will take. Jared used his Purdue University connection to locate both of the individuals that he ended up interviewing—an advanced Purdue student and a Purdue alum working in an Engineering firm.

Face-to-Face and Virtual Interviews

When interviewing, you have a choice of conducting a traditional, face-to-face interview or an interview using technology over the Internet. Face-to-face interviews have the strength that you can ask follow-up questions and use non-verbal communication to your advantage. Individuals are able to say much more in a face-to-face interview than in an email, so you will get more information from a face-to-face interview. However, the Internet provides a host of new possibilities when it comes to interviewing people at a distance. You may choose to do an email interview, where you send questions and ask the person to respond. You may also choose to use a video or audio conferencing program to talk with the person virtually. If you are choosing any Internet-based option, make sure you have a way of recording the interview. You may also use a chat or instant messaging program to interview your participant—the benefit of this is that you can ask follow-up questions during the interview and the interview is already transcribed for you. Because one of his interviewees lived several hours away, Jared chose to interview the Purdue student face-to-face and the Purdue alum via email.

Finding a Suitable Location

If you are conducting an in-person interview, it is essential that you find a quiet place for your interview. Many universities have quiet study rooms that can be reserved (often found in the university library). Do not try to interview someone in a coffee shop, dining hall, or other loud area, as it is difficult to focus and get a clear recording.

Recording Interviews

One way of eliminating bias in your research is to record your interviews rather than rely on your memory. Recording interviews allows you to directly quote the individual and re-read the interview when you are writing. It is recommended that you have two recording devices for the interview in case one recording device fails. Most computers, MP3 players, and even cell phones come with recording equipment built in. Many universities also offer equipment that students can check out and use, including computers and recorders. Before you record any interview, be sure that you have permission from your participant.

Transcribing Your Interview

Once your interview is over, you will need to transcribe your interview to prepare it for analysis. The term transcribing means creating a written record that is exactly what was said—i.e. typing up your interviews. If you have conducted an email or chat interview, you already have a transcription and can move on to your analysis stage.

Other than the fact that they both involve asking people questions, interviews and surveys are quite different data collection methods. Creating a survey may seem easy at first, but developing a quality survey can be quite challenging. When conducting a survey, you need to focus on the following areas: survey creation, survey testing, survey sampling, and distributing your survey.

Survey Creation: Length and Types of Questions

One of the keys to creating a successful survey is to keep your survey short and focused. Participants are unlikely to fill out a survey that is lengthy, and you’ll have a more difficult time during your analysis if your survey contains too many questions. In most cases, you want your survey to be something that can be filled out within a few minutes. The target length of the survey also depends on how you will distribute the survey. If you are giving your survey to other students in your dorm or classes, they will have more time to complete the survey. Therefore, five to ten minutes to complete the survey is reasonable. If you are asking students as they are walking to class to fill out your survey, keep it limited to several questions that can be answered in thirty seconds or less. Derek’s survey took about ten minutes and asked students to describe what they ate for a day, along with some demographic information like class level and gender.

   Use closed questions to your advantage when creating your survey. A closed question is any set of questions that gives a limited amount of choices (yes/no, a 1–5 scale, choose the statement that best describes you). When creating closed questions, be sure that you are accounting for all reasonable answers in your question creation. For example, asking someone “Do you believe you eat healthy?” and providing them only “yes” and “no” options means that a “neutral” or “undecided” option does not exist, even though the survey respondent may not feel strongly either way. Therefore, on closed questions you may find it helpful to include an “other” category where participants can fill in an answer. It is also a good idea to have a few open-ended questions where participants can elaborate on certain points or earlier responses. How-ever, open-ended questions take much longer to fill out than closed questions. 

Survey Creation: Testing Your Survey

To make sure your survey is an appropriate length and that your questions are clear, you can “pilot test” your survey. Prior to administering your survey on a larger scale, ask several classmates or friends to fill it out and give you feedback on the survey. Keep track of how long the survey takes to complete. Ask them if the questions are clear and make sense. Look at their answers to see if the answers match what you wanted to learn. You can revise your survey questions and the length of your survey as necessary.

Sampling and Access to Survey Populations

“Sampling” is a term used within survey research to describe the subset of people that are included in your study. Derek’s first research question was: “Are students’ eating habits at Purdue University healthy or unhealthy?” Because it was impossible for Derek to survey all 38,000 students on Purdue’s campus, he had to choose a representative sample of students. Derek chose to survey students who lived in the dorms because of the wide variety of student class levels and majors in the dorms and his easy access to this group. By making this choice, however, he did not account for commuter students, graduate students, or those who live off campus. As Derek’s case demonstrates, it is very challenging to get a truly representative sample.

   Part of the reason that sampling is a challenge is that you may find difficulty in finding enough people to take your survey. In thinking about how get people to take your survey, consider both your everyday surroundings and also technological solutions. Derek had access to many students in the dorms, but he also considered surveying students in his classes in order to reach as many people as possible. Another possibility is to conduct an online survey. Online surveys greatly increase your access to different kinds of people from across the globe, but may decrease your chances of having a high survey response rate. An email or private message survey request is more likely to be ignored due to the impersonal quality and high volume of emails most people receive.

Analyzing and Writing About Primary Research

Once you collect primary research data, you will need to analyze what you have found so that you can write about it. The purpose of analyzing your data is to look at what you collected (survey responses, interview answers to questions, observations) and to create a cohesive, systematic interpretation to help answer your research question or examine the validity of your hypothesis.

   When you are analyzing and presenting your findings, remember to work to eliminate bias by being truthful and as accurate as possible about what you found, even if it differs from what you expected to find. You should see your data as sources of information, just like sources you find in the library, and you should work to represent them accurately.

The following are suggestions for analyzing different types of data.

If you’ve counted anything you were observing, you can simply add up what you counted and report the results. If you’ve collected descriptions using a double-entry notebook, you might work to write thick descriptions of what you observed into your writing. This could include descriptions of the scene, behaviors you observed, and your overall conclusions about events. Be sure that your readers are clear on what were your actual observations versus your thoughts or interpretations of those observations.

If you’ve interviewed one or two people, then you can use your summary, paraphrasing, and quotation skills to help you accurately describe what was said in the interview. Just like in secondary research when working with sources, you should introduce your interviewees and choose clear and relevant quotes from the interviews to use in your writing. An easy way to find the important information in an interview is to print out your transcription and take a highlighter and mark the important parts that you might use in your paper. If you have conducted a large number of interviews, it will be helpful for you to create a spreadsheet of responses to each question and compare the responses, choosing representative answers for each area you want to describe.

Surveys can contain quantitative (numerical) and qualitative (written answers/descriptions) data. Quantitative data can be analyzed using a spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel to calculate the mean (average) answer or to calculate the percentage of people who responded in a certain way. You can display this information in a chart or a graph and also describe it in writing in your paper. If you have qualitative responses, you might choose to group them into categories and/or you may choose to quote several representative responses.

Writing about Primary Research

In formal research writing in a variety of fields, it is common for research to be presented in the following format: introduction/background; methods; results; discussions; conclusion. Not all first year writing classes will require such an organizational structure, although it is likely that you will be required to present many of these elements in your paper. Because of this, the next section examines each of these in depth.

Introduction (Review of Literature)

The purpose of an introduction and review of literature in a research paper is to provide readers with information that helps them under-stand the context, purpose, and relevancy of your research. The introduction is where you provide most of your background (library) research that you did earlier in the process. You can include articles, statistics, research studies, and quotes that are pertinent to the issues at hand. A second purpose in an introduction is to establish your own credibility (ethos) as a writer by showing that you have researched your topic thoroughly. This kind of background discussion is required in nearly every field of inquiry when presenting research in oral or written formats.

   Derek provided information from the Food and Drug Administration on healthy eating and national statistics about eating habits as part of his background information. He also made the case for healthy eating on campus to show relevancy:

Currently Americans are more overweight than ever. This is coming at a huge cost to the economy and government. If current trends in increasing rates of overweight and obesity continue it is likely that this generation will be the first one to live shorter lives than their parents did. Looking at the habits of university students is a good way to see how a new generation behaves when they are living out on their own for the first time.

Describing What You Did (Methods)

When writing, you need to provide enough information to your readers about your primary research process for them to understand what you collected and how you collected it. In formal research papers, this is often called a methods section. Providing information on your study methods also adds to your credibility as a writer. For surveys, your methods would include describing who you surveyed, how many surveys you collected, decisions you made about your survey sample, and relevant demographic information about your participants (age, class level, major). For interviews, introduce whom you interviewed and any other relevant information about interviewees such as their career or expertise area. For observations, list the locations and times you observed and how you recorded your observations (i.e. double-entry notebook). For all data types, you should describe how you analyzed your data.

The following is a sample from Jared about his participants:

In order to gain a better understanding of the discourse community in environmental and resource engineering, I interviewed Anne Dare, a senior in environmental and natural resource engineering, and Alyson Keaton an alumnus of Purdue University. Alyson is a current employee of the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), which is a division of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Here is a sample from Derek’s methods section:

I conducted a survey so that I could find out what students at Purdue actually eat on a typical day. I handed out surveys asking students to record what they ate for a day . . . I received 29 back and averaged the results based on average number of servings from each food group on the old food guide pyramid. The group included students from the freshman to the graduate level and had 8 women and 21 men respond.

Describing Your Study Findings (Results)

In a formal research paper, the results section is where you describe what you found. The results section can include charts, graphs, lists, direct quotes, and overviews of findings. Readers find it helpful if you are able to provide the information in different formats. For example, if you have any kind of numbers or percentages, you can talk about them in your written description and then present a graph or chart showing them visually. You should provide specific details as supporting evidence to back up your findings. These details can be in the form of direct quotations, numbers, or observations.

Jared describes some of his interview results:

Alyson also mentioned the need for phone conversation. She stated, “The phone is a large part of my job. I am communicating with other NRCS offices daily to find out the status of our jobs.” She needs to be in constant contact in order to insure that everything is running smoothly. This is common with those overseeing projects. In these cases, the wait for a response to an email or a memo can be too long to be effective.

Interpreting What You Learned (Discussion)

In formal research papers, the discussion section presents your own interpretation of your results. This may include what you think the results mean or how they are useful to your larger argument. If you are making a proposal for change or a call to action, this is where you make it. For example, in Derek’s project about healthy eating on campus, Derek used his primary research on students’ unhealthy eating and observations of the food courts to argue that the campus food courts needed serious changes. Derek writes, “Make healthy food options the most accessible in every dining hall while making unhealthy foods the least. Put nutrition facts for everything that is served in the dining halls near the food so that students can make more informed decisions on what to eat.”

   Jared used the individuals he interviewed as informants that helped him learn more about writing in agricultural and biological engineering. He integrated the interviews he conducted with secondary research to form a complete picture of writing and communication in agricultural and biological engineering. He concludes:

Writing takes so many forms, and it is important to know about all these forms in one way or another. The more forms of writing you can achieve, the more flexible you can be. This ability to be flexible can make all the difference in writing when you are dealing with a field as complex as engineering.

Primary Research and Works Cited or References Pages

The last part of presenting your primary research project is a works cited or references page. In general, since you are working with data you collected yourself, there is no source to cite an external source. Your methods section should describe in detail to the readers how and where the data presented was obtained. However, if you are working with interviews, you can cite these as “personal communication.” The MLA and APA handbooks both provide clear listings of how to cite personal communication in a works cited/references page.

This essay has presented an overview to three commonly used methods of primary research in first year writing courses: observations, interviews, and surveys. By using these methods, you can learn more about the world around you and craft meaningful written discussions of your findings.

• Primary research techniques show up in more places than just first year writing courses. Where else might interviews, surveys, or observations be used? Where have you seen them used?
• The chapter provides a brief discussion of the ethical considerations of research. Can you think of any additional ethical considerations when conducting primary research? Can you think of ethical considerations unique to your own research project?
• Primary research is most useful for first year writing students if it is based in your local community or campus. What are some current issues on your campus or in your community that could be investigated using primary research methods?
• In groups or as a class, make a list of potential primary research topics. After each topic on the list, consider what method of inquiry (observation, interview, or survey) you would use to study the topic and answer why that method is a good choice.

Suggested Resources

For more information on the primary methods of inquiry described here, please see the following sources:

Works Cited

This essay was written by Dana Lynn Driscoll and was published as a chapter in Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing , Volume 2, a peer-reviewed open textbook series for the writing classroom. This work is licensed under the Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) . Please keep this information on this material if you use, adapt, and/or share it.  

Contact Info

Kennesaw Campus 1000 Chastain Road Kennesaw, GA 30144

Marietta Campus 1100 South Marietta Pkwy Marietta, GA 30060

Campus Maps

Phone 470-KSU-INFO (470-578-4636)

kennesaw.edu/info

Media Resources

Resources For

Related Links

• Financial Aid
• Degrees, Majors & Programs
• Job Opportunities
• Campus Security
• Global Education
• Sustainability
• Accessibility

470-KSU-INFO (470-578-4636)

© 2024 Kennesaw State University. All Rights Reserved.

• Privacy Statement
• Accreditation
• Emergency Information
• Report a Concern
• Open Records
• Human Trafficking Notice

1000+ FREE Research Topics & Title Ideas

Select your area of interest to view a collection of potential research topics and ideas.

Or grab the full list 📋 (for free)

PS – You can also check out our free topic ideation webinar for more ideas

How To Find A Research Topic

If you’re struggling to get started, this step-by-step video tutorial will help you find the perfect research topic.

Research Topic FAQs

What (exactly) is a research topic.

A research topic is the subject of a research project or study – for example, a dissertation or thesis. A research topic typically takes the form of a problem to be solved, or a question to be answered.

A good research topic should be specific enough to allow for focused research and analysis. For example, if you are interested in studying the effects of climate change on agriculture, your research topic could focus on how rising temperatures have impacted crop yields in certain regions over time.

To learn more about the basics of developing a research topic, consider our free research topic ideation webinar.

What constitutes a good research topic?

A strong research topic comprises three important qualities : originality, value and feasibility.

• Originality – a good topic explores an original area or takes a novel angle on an existing area of study.
• Value – a strong research topic provides value and makes a contribution, either academically or practically.
• Feasibility – a good research topic needs to be practical and manageable, given the resource constraints you face.

To learn more about what makes for a high-quality research topic, check out this post .

What's the difference between a research topic and research problem?

A research topic and a research problem are two distinct concepts that are often confused. A research topic is a broader label that indicates the focus of the study , while a research problem is an issue or gap in knowledge within the broader field that needs to be addressed.

To illustrate this distinction, consider a student who has chosen “teenage pregnancy in the United Kingdom” as their research topic. This research topic could encompass any number of issues related to teenage pregnancy such as causes, prevention strategies, health outcomes for mothers and babies, etc.

Within this broad category (the research topic) lies potential areas of inquiry that can be explored further – these become the research problems . For example:

• What factors contribute to higher rates of teenage pregnancy in certain communities?
• How do different types of parenting styles affect teen pregnancy rates?
• What interventions have been successful in reducing teenage pregnancies?

Simply put, a key difference between a research topic and a research problem is scope ; the research topic provides an umbrella under which multiple questions can be asked, while the research problem focuses on one specific question or set of questions within that larger context.

How can I find potential research topics for my project?

There are many steps involved in the process of finding and choosing a high-quality research topic for a dissertation or thesis. We cover these steps in detail in this video (also accessible below).

How can I find quality sources for my research topic?

Finding quality sources is an essential step in the topic ideation process. To do this, you should start by researching scholarly journals, books, and other academic publications related to your topic. These sources can provide reliable information on a wide range of topics. Additionally, they may contain data or statistics that can help support your argument or conclusions.

Identifying Relevant Sources

When searching for relevant sources, it’s important to look beyond just published material; try using online databases such as Google Scholar or JSTOR to find articles from reputable journals that have been peer-reviewed by experts in the field.

You can also use search engines like Google or Bing to locate websites with useful information about your topic. However, be sure to evaluate any website before citing it as a source—look for evidence of authorship (such as an “About Us” page) and make sure the content is up-to-date and accurate before relying on it.

Evaluating Sources

Once you’ve identified potential sources for your research project, take some time to evaluate them thoroughly before deciding which ones will best serve your purpose. Consider factors such as author credibility (are they an expert in their field?), publication date (is the source current?), objectivity (does the author present both sides of an issue?) and relevance (how closely does this source relate to my specific topic?).

By researching the current literature on your topic, you can identify potential sources that will help to provide quality information. Once you’ve identified these sources, it’s time to look for a gap in the research and determine what new knowledge could be gained from further study.

How can I find a good research gap?

Finding a strong gap in the literature is an essential step when looking for potential research topics. We explain what research gaps are and how to find them in this post.

How should I evaluate potential research topics/ideas?

When evaluating potential research topics, it is important to consider the factors that make for a strong topic (we discussed these earlier). Specifically:

• Originality
• Feasibility

So, when you have a list of potential topics or ideas, assess each of them in terms of these three criteria. A good topic should take a unique angle, provide value (either to academia or practitioners), and be practical enough for you to pull off, given your limited resources.

Finally, you should also assess whether this project could lead to potential career opportunities such as internships or job offers down the line. Make sure that you are researching something that is relevant enough so that it can benefit your professional development in some way. Additionally, consider how each research topic aligns with your career goals and interests; researching something that you are passionate about can help keep motivation high throughout the process.

How can I assess the feasibility of a research topic?

When evaluating the feasibility and practicality of a research topic, it is important to consider several factors.

First, you should assess whether or not the research topic is within your area of competence. Of course, when you start out, you are not expected to be the world’s leading expert, but do should at least have some foundational knowledge.

Time commitment

When considering a research topic, you should think about how much time will be required for completion. Depending on your field of study, some topics may require more time than others due to their complexity or scope.

Additionally, if you plan on collaborating with other researchers or institutions in order to complete your project, additional considerations must be taken into account such as coordinating schedules and ensuring that all parties involved have adequate resources available.

Resources needed

It’s also critically important to consider what type of resources are necessary in order to conduct the research successfully. This includes physical materials such as lab equipment and chemicals but can also include intangible items like access to certain databases or software programs which may be necessary depending on the nature of your work. Additionally, if there are costs associated with obtaining these materials then this must also be factored into your evaluation process.

Potential risks

It’s important to consider the inherent potential risks for each potential research topic. These can include ethical risks (challenges getting ethical approval), data risks (not being able to access the data you’ll need), technical risks relating to the equipment you’ll use and funding risks (not securing the necessary financial back to undertake the research).

Need hands-on help?

Private coaching might be just what you need.

• Skip to main content
• Skip to primary sidebar
• Skip to footer
• QuestionPro

• Solutions Industries Gaming Automotive Sports and events Education Government Travel & Hospitality Financial Services Healthcare Cannabis Technology Use Case AskWhy Communities Audience Contactless surveys Mobile LivePolls Member Experience GDPR Positive People Science 360 Feedback Surveys
• Resources Blog eBooks Survey Templates Case Studies Training Help center

Home Market Research

Primary Research: What It Is, Purpose & Methods + Examples

As we continue exploring the exciting research world, we’ll come across two primary and secondary data approaches. This article will focus on primary research – what it is, how it’s done, and why it’s essential. 

We’ll discuss the methods used to gather first-hand data and examples of how it’s applied in various fields. Get ready to discover how this research can be used to solve research problems , answer questions, and drive innovation.

What is Primary Research: Definition

Primary research is a methodology researchers use to collect data directly rather than depending on data collected from previously done research. Technically, they “own” the data. Primary research is solely carried out to address a certain problem, which requires in-depth analysis .

There are two forms of research:

• Primary Research
• Secondary Research

Businesses or organizations can conduct primary research or employ a third party to conduct research. One major advantage of primary research is this type of research is “pinpointed.” Research only focuses on a specific issue or problem and on obtaining related solutions.

For example, a brand is about to launch a new mobile phone model and wants to research the looks and features they will soon introduce. 

Organizations can select a qualified sample of respondents closely resembling the population and conduct primary research with them to know their opinions. Based on this research, the brand can now think of probable solutions to make necessary changes in the looks and features of the mobile phone.

Primary Research Methods with Examples

In this technology-driven world, meaningful data is more valuable than gold. Organizations or businesses need highly validated data to make informed decisions. This is the very reason why many companies are proactive in gathering their own data so that the authenticity of data is maintained and they get first-hand data without any alterations.

Here are some of the primary research methods organizations or businesses use to collect data:

1. Interviews (telephonic or face-to-face)

Conducting interviews is a qualitative research method to collect data and has been a popular method for ages. These interviews can be conducted in person (face-to-face) or over the telephone. Interviews are an open-ended method that involves dialogues or interaction between the interviewer (researcher) and the interviewee (respondent).

Conducting a face-to-face interview method is said to generate a better response from respondents as it is a more personal approach. However, the success of face-to-face interviews depends heavily on the researcher’s ability to ask questions and his/her experience related to conducting such interviews in the past. The types of questions that are used in this type of research are mostly open-ended questions . These questions help to gain in-depth insights into the opinions and perceptions of respondents.

Personal interviews usually last up to 30 minutes or even longer, depending on the subject of research. If a researcher is running short of time conducting telephonic interviews can also be helpful to collect data.

2. Online surveys

Once conducted with pen and paper, surveys have come a long way since then. Today, most researchers use online surveys to send to respondents to gather information from them. Online surveys are convenient and can be sent by email or can be filled out online. These can be accessed on handheld devices like smartphones, tablets, iPads, and similar devices.

Once a survey is deployed, a certain amount of stipulated time is given to respondents to answer survey questions and send them back to the researcher. In order to get maximum information from respondents, surveys should have a good mix of open-ended questions and close-ended questions . The survey should not be lengthy. Respondents lose interest and tend to leave it half-done.

It is a good practice to reward respondents for successfully filling out surveys for their time and efforts and valuable information. Most organizations or businesses usually give away gift cards from reputed brands that respondents can redeem later.

3. Focus groups

This popular research technique is used to collect data from a small group of people, usually restricted to 6-10. Focus group brings together people who are experts in the subject matter for which research is being conducted.

Focus group has a moderator who stimulates discussions among the members to get greater insights. Organizations and businesses can make use of this method, especially to identify niche markets to learn about a specific group of consumers.

4. Observations

In this primary research method, there is no direct interaction between the researcher and the person/consumer being observed. The researcher observes the reactions of a subject and makes notes.

Trained observers or cameras are used to record reactions. Observations are noted in a predetermined situation. For example, a bakery brand wants to know how people react to its new biscuits, observes notes on consumers’ first reactions, and evaluates collective data to draw inferences .

Primary Research vs Secondary Research – The Differences

Primary and secondary research are two distinct approaches to gathering information, each with its own characteristics and advantages. 

While primary research involves conducting surveys to gather firsthand data from potential customers, secondary market research is utilized to analyze existing industry reports and competitor data, providing valuable context and benchmarks for the survey findings.

Find out more details about the differences: 

1. Definition

• Primary Research: Involves the direct collection of original data specifically for the research project at hand. Examples include surveys, interviews, observations, and experiments.
• Secondary Research: Involves analyzing and interpreting existing data, literature, or information. This can include sources like books, articles, databases, and reports.

2. Data Source

• Primary Research: Data is collected directly from individuals, experiments, or observations.
• Secondary Research: Data is gathered from already existing sources.

3. Time and Cost

• Primary Research: Often time-consuming and can be costly due to the need for designing and implementing research instruments and collecting new data.
• Secondary Research: Generally more time and cost-effective, as it relies on readily available data.

4. Customization

• Primary Research: Provides tailored and specific information, allowing researchers to address unique research questions.
• Secondary Research: Offers information that is pre-existing and may not be as customized to the specific needs of the researcher.
• Primary Research: Researchers have control over the research process, including study design, data collection methods , and participant selection.
• Secondary Research: Limited control, as researchers rely on data collected by others.

6. Originality

• Primary Research: Generates original data that hasn’t been analyzed before.
• Secondary Research: Involves the analysis of data that has been previously collected and analyzed.

7. Relevance and Timeliness

• Primary Research: Often provides more up-to-date and relevant data or information.
• Secondary Research: This may involve data that is outdated, but it can still be valuable for historical context or broad trends.

Advantages of Primary Research

Primary research has several advantages over other research methods, making it an indispensable tool for anyone seeking to understand their target market, improve their products or services, and stay ahead of the competition. So let’s dive in and explore the many benefits of primary research.

• One of the most important advantages is data collected is first-hand and accurate. In other words, there is no dilution of data. Also, this research method can be customized to suit organizations’ or businesses’ personal requirements and needs .
• I t focuses mainly on the problem at hand, which means entire attention is directed to finding probable solutions to a pinpointed subject matter. Primary research allows researchers to go in-depth about a matter and study all foreseeable options.
• Data collected can be controlled. I T gives a means to control how data is collected and used. It’s up to the discretion of businesses or organizations who are collecting data how to best make use of data to get meaningful research insights.
• I t is a time-tested method, therefore, one can rely on the results that are obtained from conducting this type of research.

Disadvantages of Primary Research

While primary research is a powerful tool for gathering unique and firsthand data, it also has its limitations. As we explore the drawbacks, we’ll gain a deeper understanding of when primary research may not be the best option and how to work around its challenges.

• One of the major disadvantages of primary research is it can be quite expensive to conduct. One may be required to spend a huge sum of money depending on the setup or primary research method used. Not all businesses or organizations may be able to spend a considerable amount of money.
• This type of research can be time-consuming. Conducting interviews and sending and receiving online surveys can be quite an exhaustive process and require investing time and patience for the process to work. Moreover, evaluating results and applying the findings to improve a product or service will need additional time.
• Sometimes, just using one primary research method may not be enough. In such cases, the use of more than one method is required, and this might increase both the time required to conduct research and the cost associated with it.

Every research is conducted with a purpose. Primary research is conducted by organizations or businesses to stay informed of the ever-changing market conditions and consumer perception. Excellent customer satisfaction (CSAT) has become a key goal and objective of many organizations.

A customer-centric organization knows the importance of providing exceptional products and services to its customers to increase customer loyalty and decrease customer churn. Organizations collect data and analyze it by conducting primary research to draw highly evaluated results and conclusions. Using this information, organizations are able to make informed decisions based on real data-oriented insights.

QuestionPro is a comprehensive survey platform that can be used to conduct primary research. Users can create custom surveys and distribute them to their target audience , whether it be through email, social media, or a website.

QuestionPro also offers advanced features such as skip logic, branching, and data analysis tools, making collecting and analyzing data easier. With QuestionPro, you can gather valuable insights and make informed decisions based on the results of your primary research. Start today for free!

LEARN MORE         FREE TRIAL

MORE LIKE THIS

Participant Engagement: Strategies + Improving Interaction

Sep 12, 2024

Employee Recognition Programs: A Complete Guide

Sep 11, 2024

A guide to conducting agile qualitative research for rapid insights with Digsite 

Cultural Insights: What it is, Importance + How to Collect?

Sep 10, 2024

Other categories

• Academic Research
• Artificial Intelligence
• Assessments
• Brand Awareness
• Case Studies
• Communities
• Consumer Insights
• Customer effort score
• Customer Engagement
• Customer Experience
• Customer Loyalty
• Customer Research
• Customer Satisfaction
• Employee Benefits
• Employee Engagement
• Employee Retention
• Friday Five
• General Data Protection Regulation
• Insights Hub
• Life@QuestionPro
• Market Research
• Mobile diaries
• Mobile Surveys
• New Features
• Online Communities
• Question Types
• Questionnaire
• QuestionPro Products
• Release Notes
• Research Tools and Apps
• Revenue at Risk
• Survey Templates
• Training Tips
• Tuesday CX Thoughts (TCXT)
• Uncategorized
• What’s Coming Up
• Workforce Intelligence

Extended Essay: Conducting Primary Research

• Extended Essay- The Basics
• Step 1. Choose a Subject
• Step 2. Educate yourself!
• Using Brainstorming and Mind Maps
• Identify Keywords
• Do Background Reading
• Define Your Topic
• Conduct Research in a Specific Discipline
• Step 5. Draft a Research Question
• Step 6. Create a Timeline
• Find Articles
• Find Primary Sources
• Get Help from Experts
• Search Engines, Repositories, & Directories
• Databases and Websites by Subject Area
• Create an Annotated Bibliography
• Advice (and Warnings) from the IB
• Chicago Citation Syle
• MLA Works Cited & In-Text Citations
• Step 9. Set Deadlines for Yourself
• Step 10. Plan a structure for your essay
• Evaluate & Select: the CRAAP Test
• Conducting Secondary Research
• Conducting Primary Research
• Formal vs. Informal Writing
• Presentation Requirements
• Evaluating Your Work

Primary Research - a Definition

Primary research is the collecting of original data.

Not all subjects permit the use of primary methods as part of the research process for the EE, so it is important to carefully check your subject guidelines before starting.

On this page, you can find information on:

Primary Research - What is Its Purpose? Primary Research - Preparation Before You Begin Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research Research Methods Considerations for Primary Research Ways That Primary Research Can Fail Video Tutorials

Primary Research - Purpose

After the literature review or secondary research is completed, you must analyze your findings and: 

• determine to what extent they answer your research question
• find agreement between authors
• find disagreement, where the evidence reveals differences in points of view or findings.

At this point you may decide to investigate further by carrying out your own primary research , in other words by collecting your own data . 

You will have to choose a method or methods that are appropriate to the research question and commonly used in the particular Diploma Programme subject. NOTE:  although the method may be appropriate for the subject, in the instance of the EE it may not be permitted, so check the subject guide!

Possible data collection methods include:

• experiments 
• investigations 
• interviews 

The details of how the data was collected are crucial to the validity of any argument based on the findings. You must put in the main body of your essay the details of any primary research you carry out. These include: 

• the methods used
• the persons involved
• how and why these were selected
• the relevant results
• any limitations and biases that may have influenced the results

Primary Research - Preparation Before You Begin

Students must follow the accepted process for carrying out their chosen method of research—how the data is recorded, analysed and presented. Otherwise, their data will have little value. 

Students need to plan carefully how to carry out their research. In most cases, there will be only one opportunity to collect primary data from a particular source. 

It is extremely important that students approach their research in an ethical and legal manner. See: 

Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research

Quantitative research  follows a well-defined process that yields data that can be analyzed statistically.  For example:

• outcomes from experiments
• data collected from surveys where responses involve closed or multiple-choice responses

Qualitative research  collects information that may reflect opinions or personal perspectives on a particular situation. The data that is collected gives an overall impression and generally cannot be analyzed statistically.  For example:

• responses in interviews
• open-ended questions in surveys

Videos: Primary Data, Conducting Surveys, Primary Research Methods

B2Bwhiteboard. What is primary data? 3 January 2012. YouTube, https://youtu.be/yZgCam-sjCw. Accessed January 2017. 

Learn how to conduct an online survey. Topics include: Developing research questions; designing a good questionnaire; choosing the right online survey tool (Google Forms, Sosci Survey, Survey Monkey).

Ebster, Claus. How to conduct an online survey. 5 August 2014. YouTube, https://youtu.be/uTIWl76_klI. Accessed January 2017. 

​This video from Ivory Research provides information on the top 3 primary research methods for graduate students writing a dissertation - including questionnaires, interviews and focus groups: how to collect research and use it for maximum effectiveness.

IvoryResearch. Dissertation tutorial: Top 3 primary research methods. 12 August 2013. YouTube., https://youtu.be/_lR7oCjutZE. Accessed May 2015.

Research Methods

Experiments can be conducted and their data collected using systematic methods and well-defined processes. For example:

• using the scientific method in conducting science experiments
• simulating an experiment on using mobile phone technology to determine the location of a person. 

Experiments usually involve quantitative processes to collect and analyze the resulting data. 

Investigations

Types of investigation include:

• photographs
• historical documents
• company policies
• original art.

Investigations of original source material can reveal whether a particular situation exists or to what extent it does. Investigations can also extract and analyze data from original sources to demonstrate that a particular outcome does occur. 

Interviews can be with one person or a small group, also called a focus group.  Face-to-face interviews have the advantage of allowing the interviewer to ask follow-up questions during the interview.  

• ​ face-to-face
• by online chat
• developing questions related to the research question and the findings from secondary research 
• doing a trial or test of the questions before the actual interview
• deciding on the best methodology for conducting and recording the interview
• making the purpose and use of the data collected well known in advance
• in some cases, providing the interviewee with the questions in advance
• assuring the anonymity of the interviewee if requested

Question design 

Questions should be designed to elicit the responses required to help answer the overall research question. 

Recording the interview 

Another consideration is how to record the response. You must ask the permission of the interviewee if you wish to use any audio-visual equipment during an interview.  Please note that electronic submissions are not acceptable, and so an example of a transcript will need to be attached in the appendix. Refer to the section of this guide on appendices for further information. 

Surveys can be carried out:   

• using a printed form distributed to a defined group of people under controlled conditions

The researcher is better able to control who is responding to the questions when using paper surveys than online. 

Successful surveys require:

• knowing from the secondary research what areas need to be investigated
• forming well-stated questions that yield data that can be analyzed
• ttesting the questions before conducting the survey—this is called a pilot study
• assuring anonymity as requested by the participants
• conducting the survey and collecting the data in a well-defined manner

Quantitative vs qualitative data 

To collect quantitative data the survey must ask closed or multiple-choice questions. These: 

• have a limited number of responses or
• have scale choices or
• require the respondent to prioritize items

To collect qualitative data , the survey must ask open-ended questions, which allow the respondents to write their own answer. 

Sample size and selection 

When collecting data from groups of people, you must make certain that:

• the sample is large enough to generate meaningful data
• it is clear how and why she or he selected the participants

Considerations for Primary Research

Whichever method is used, your primary research must be well structured and collect data relating to people, events or objects. 

The data collected must be:

• measurable or observable

Questions for you to consider are:

• What do you want to find out from your primary research?
• How will this relate to the findings from your secondary research?
• How will the data collected relate to the research question you have posed?
• What is the best method to collect relevant and reliable data and from where?
• Are there any ethical or legal considerations to using a primary method that must be taken into account? 

The analysis of primary research includes:

• the analysis of the data collected
• the connections you will make between the different sources of information used—for example, your secondary and primary research

You time should be spent researching:

• what the different primary data collection methods are
• how to use the different methods to obtain reliable results
• how to use the results as evidence to support your essay’s argument.

Ways That Primary Research Can Fail

A badly designed or implemented experiment or investigation will lead to flawed results . The following list indicates some ways that primary research can fail. 

• The survey sample is too small or badly controlled so you cannot reach any conclusions relevant to the research question. 
• The survey/interview questions do not take proper account of the secondary research findings or the research question, and so do not lead to relevant conclusions. 
• using a recording device without the interviewee being aware that the interview was being recorded 
• taking photos in prohibited areas
• downloading copyrighted music to demonstrate how it is done.
• A student has used a research method that is not permitted or not appropriate for the subject in which they are submitting their EE.
• << Previous: Conducting Secondary Research
• Next: Writing Your Essay >>
• Last Updated: Sep 3, 2024 10:01 AM
• URL: https://libguides.westsoundacademy.org/ee

• SAT BootCamp
• SAT MasterClass
• SAT Private Tutoring
• SAT Proctored Practice Test
• ACT Private Tutoring
• Academic Subjects
• College Essay Workshop
• Academic Writing Workshop
• AP English FRQ BootCamp
• 1:1 College Essay Help
• Online Instruction
• Free Resources

500 Good Research Paper Topics

Bonus Material: Essential essay checklist

Writing a research paper for a class and not sure how to start?

One of the most important steps to creating a great paper is finding a good topic! 

Here’s a hand-drafted list from a Princeton grad who has helped professors at Harvard and Yale edit their papers for publication and taught college writing at the University of Notre Dame and .

What’s more, we give you some foolproof formulas for creating your own paper topic to fit the requirements of your class.

Using these simple formulas, we’ve helped hundreds of students turn a B- paper topic into an A+ paper topic.

Keep reading for our list of 500 vetted research paper topics and our magic formulas for creating your own topic!

Of course, if you want help learning to write research papers tailored to your individual needs, check out our one-on-one writing coaching or academic writing workshop . Set up a free consultation to see how we can help you learn to write A+ papers!

Jump to paper topics in:

European & Mediterranean History

African history, asian history, history of the pre-columbian americas.

• Latin American History

History of Science

Politics & public policy, education & education policy, political theory, science policy.

• Health Sciences & Psychology

What is a research paper?

In order to write a good research paper, it’s important to know what it is! 

In general, we can divide academic writing into three broad categories:

• Analytical: analyze the tools an author uses to make their point
• Research: delve deeply into a research topic and share your findings
• Persuasive : argue a specific and nuanced position backed by evidence

What’s the difference between an analytical paper and a research paper? For an analytical paper, it’s okay to just use one or two sources (a book, poem, work of art, piece of music, etc.) and examine them in detail. For a research paper, however, the expectation is that you do, well . . . research .

The depth of research that you’re expected to do will depend on your age and the type of class you’re taking.

In elementary or middle school, a “research paper” might mean finding information from a few general books or encyclopedias in your school library. 

In high school, your teachers might expect you to start using information from academic articles and more specific books. You might use encyclopedias and general works as a starting point, but you’ll be expected to go beyond them and do more work to synthesize information from different perspectives or different types of sources. You may also be expected to do “primary research,” where you study the source material yourself, instead of synthesizing what other people have written about the source material.

In college, you’ll be required to use academic journals and scholarly books, and your professors will now expect that you be more critical of these secondary sources, noticing the methodology and perspectives of whatever articles and books you’re using. 

In more advanced college courses, you’ll be expected to do more exhaustive surveys of the existing literature on a topic. You’ll need to conduct primary research that makes an original contribution to the field—the kind that could be published in a journal article itself.

For a walkthrough of the 12 essential steps to writing a good paper, check out our step-by-step guide .

Working on a research paper? Grab our free checklist to make sure your essay has everything it needs to earn an A grade.

Get the essential essay checklist

What makes a good research paper topic?

One of the most important features of a research paper topic is that it has a clear, narrow focus. 

For example, your teacher may assign you to write a research paper related to the US Revolutionary War. Does that mean that your topic should be “the US Revolutionary War”? 

Definitely not! There’s no way to craft a good paper with in-depth research with such a broad topic. (Unless you’re in elementary or middle school, in which case it’s okay to have a more general topic for your research paper.)

Instead, you need to find a more specific topic within this broader one. There are endless ways that you can make this narrower! Some ideas generated from this one broader topic might be:

• Causes of the US Revolutionary War
• Changes in military strategy during the Revolutionary War
• The experiences of Loyalists to England who remained in the American colonies during the Revolutionary War
• How the Revolutionary War was pivotal for the career of Alexander Hamilton
• The role of alliances with France during the US Revolutionary War
• The experiences of people of color during the Revolutionary War
• How George Washington’s previous military career paved the way for his leadership in the Revolutionary War
• The main types of weaponry during the Revolutionary War
• Changes in clothing and fashion over the courses of the Revolutionary War
• How Valley Forge was a key moment in the Revolutionary War
• How women contributed to the Revolutionary War
• What happened in Amherst, Massachusetts during the Revolutionary War
• Field medicine during the Revolutionary War
• How the Battle of Saratoga was a turning point in the Revolutionary War
• How different opinions about the Revolutionary War were reflected in poetry written during that time
• Debates over abolition during the Revolutionary War
• The importance of supply chains during the Revolutionary War
• Reactions to the US Revolutionary war in Europe
• How the US Revolutionary war impacted political theory in England and France
• Similarities and differences between the US Revolutionary War and the French Revolution
• Famous paintings inspired by the US Revolutionary War
• Different ways that the US Revolutionary War has been depicted in modern contemporary culture
• The appropriation of the “Boston Tea Party” by US politicians in the 2010s

This list could go on forever!

In fact, any of these topics could become even more specific. For example, check out the evolution of this topic:

• Economic causes of the Revolutionary war
• The way that tax policies helped lead to the Revolutionary War
• How tax laws enacted 1763–1775 helped lead to the Revolutionary War
• How the tax-free status of the British East India Company helped lead to the Revolutionary War
• How the 1773 tax-free status of the British East India Company helped lead to the Revolutionary War, as reflected in letters written 1767–1775
• How the 1773 tax-free status of the British East India Company helped lead to the Revolutionary War, as reflected in letters written by members of the Sons of Liberty 1767–1775

As you advance in your educational career, you’ll need to make your topic more and more specific. Steps 1–3 of this topic might be okay in high school, but for a college research paper steps 4–7 would be more appropriate!

As you craft your research paper topic, you should also keep in mind the availability of research materials on your subject. There are millions of topics that would make interesting research papers, but for which you yourself might not be able to investigate with the primary and secondary sources to which you have access.

Access to research materials might look like:

• To the best of our knowledge, the sources exist somewhere
• The source isn’t behind a paywall (or you or your school can pay for it)
• Your school or local library has a copy of the source
• Your school or local library can order a copy of the source for you
• The source is in a language that you speak
• The source has been published already (there’s tons of amazing research that hasn’t been published yet, a frustrating problem!)
• You can access the archive, museum, or database where the primary source is held—this might mean online access or travel! To access a source in an archive or museum you’ll often need permission, which often requires a letter of support from your school.

If you’re not sure about access to source materials, talk to a librarian! They’re professionals for this question.

Finally, pick a research topic that interests you! Given that there are unlimited research topics in the world and many ways to adapt a broad topic, there should absolutely be a way to modify a research topic to fit your interests.

Want help learning to write an amazing research paper? Work one-on-one with an experienced Ivy-League tutor to improve your writing skills or sign up for our bestselling academic writing workshop .

Insider tips to generate your own research paper topic

Use these formulas to generate your own research paper topics:

• How did X change over a period of time (year, decade, century)?
• What is the impact (or consequences) of X?
• What led to X?
• What is the role of X in Y?
• How did X influence Y?
• How did X become Y?
• How was X different from Y?
• How is X an example of Y?
• How did X affect Y?
• What were some reactions to X?
• What are the most effective policies to produce X result?
• What are some risks of X?
• How is our current understanding of X incorrect? (advanced)
• What happens if we look at X through the lens of Y theory or perspective? (advanced)

A good research paper topic often starts with the question words—why, how, what, who, and where. Remember to make it as specific as possible!

Good research paper topics

These research paper topics have been vetted by a Princeton grad and academic book editor!

• How did European rivalries (British vs French) impact North American history?
• What was the role of British and French alliances with indigneous tribes during the Seven Years’ War?
• Reactions to the 1754 Albany Congress among North American intellectual figures
• How the Albany Plan served as a model for future attempts at union among the North American colonies
• How did different religious identities (Calvinist, Catholic, etc.) play a role in the aftermath of the Seven Years’ War?
• What were the consequences of the 1763 Treaty of Paris?
• How did the Seven Years’ War impact British debt and colonial economics?
• What were some causes of the US Revolutionary War?
• How did military strategy change during the Revolutionary War?
• What were the experiences of Loyalists to England who remained in the American colonies during the Revolutionary War?
• How was the Revolutionary War pivotal for the career of Alexander Hamilton?
• What was the role of alliances with France during the US Revolutionary War?
• What were the experiences of people of color during the Revolutionary War?
• How did George Washington’s previous military career pave the way for his leadership in the Revolutionary War?
• What were the main types of weaponry during the Revolutionary War? How did that affect the options for military strategies?
• How did clothing and fashion change over the courses of the Revolutionary War?
• How was Valley Forge a key moment in the Revolutionary War?
• How did women contribute to the Revolutionary War?
• What happened in Amherst, Massachusetts (or any other specific location) during the Revolutionary War?
• What was field medicine like during the Revolutionary War? 
• How was the Battle of Saratoga a turning point in the Revolutionary War?
• How were different opinions about the Revolutionary War reflected in poetry written during that time?
• What were the debates over abolition during the Revolutionary War?
• What was the role of supply chains during the Revolutionary War?
• What were reactions to the US Revolutionary war like in Europe? What does that tell us about politics in England, France, the Netherlands, etc?
• How did the US Revolutionary war impact political theory in England and France?
• What are similarities and differences between the US Revolutionary War and the French Revolution?
• What are some famous paintings inspired by the US Revolutionary War? What do differences between these paintings tell us about how the artists who created them saw the war?
• What are some different ways that the US Revolutionary War has been depicted in modern contemporary culture? What does that tell us?
• How was the story of the “Boston Tea Party” appropriated by US politicians in the 2010s, and why?
• What was the difference between the Federalists and the Jeffersonians?
• How did the 1797 XYZ Affair lead to the Quasi-War with France?
• How were loans from European countries and companies (France, Spain, Dutch bankers) key to the early US?
• What were reactions to the Constitutional Convention of 1787?
• Why did the US remain neutral during the French Revolution?
• How did the Alien and Sedition acts contribute to the election of Thomas Jefferson as president?
• What was the US’s reaction to the Haitian revolution? Why did the US not recognize Haitian independence until 1862?
• What were the reactions to John Jay’s Treaty of 1794?
• How have the remarks made by George Washington in his Farewell Address inspired isolationist policies?
• How did interpretations of the Monroe Doctrine change over the decades since its creation? 
• How did the Roosevelt Corollary and Lodge Corollary change and expand the Monroe Doctrine?
• How did the presence of US companies like the United Fruit Company affect US military interventions in Latin America? 
• How was the Monroe Doctrine invoked in the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962? 
• How was US culture shaped by the Cold War?
• How did ecology play a role in the rise of Ancient Egypt?
• How did water management technologies impact Ancient Egypt?
• How did bureaucracies function in Ancient Egypt?
• How did Egyptian art influence Ancient Greek art?
• Who could be a citizen in Athens in the 5th century BCE? What does this tell us about classical Athenian society?
• What was the impact of the Peloponnesian War?
• What was the impact of Alexander the Great’s attempt to create an empire?
• How does the way that Alexander the Great is represented in art demonstrate conceptions about the relationship between the human and the divine?
• Was there a conception of race in the ancient world? How were these ideas different from our own modern conceptions of race?
• What was the role of debt slavery in the Roman republic? How were these policies ended, and what is the significance of the end of debt slavery? What kinds of slavery remained?
• To what degree does the movie Gladiator accurately the Roman Empire in 176–192 CE?
• What was the role of slavery in managing the large latifundia ?
• How and why did the emperor Constantine I adopt Christianity?
• How did patterns of urbanism in the latter Roman empire change? What does this tell us about challenges being faced at that time?
• What do reactions to the Byzantine empress Theodora tell us about ideas of gender in 6th-century Byzantium?
• How did scientific advancements in Islamic Spain influence the rest of Europe?
• What was the relationship between Muslim, Christian, and Jewish populations in Islamic Spain? How does this compare to the experience of Muslim and Jewish populations in Christian Spain?
• How did medieval troubadour poetry represent a new idea of romantic relationships?
• What are similarities and differences between medieval troubadour poetry and lyric poetry in Ancient Greece? 
• What do letters between women and popes tell us about gender, power, and religion in medieval Europe?
• In what ways was Hildegard of Bingen groundbreaking for her time?
• Who produced beer in medieval England, and what does this tell us about society?
• How did the adoption of hops affect the production and distribution of beer?
• How did beer production allow some women a way to be financially independent?
• How was clothing used to mark religious and cultural identities in 15th- and 16th-century Spain?
• How did print culture change relationships and courting in Georgian England?
• How did churches function as social gathering spaces in Georgian England?
• To what degree is Netflix’s Bridgerton series historically accurate?
• How did ideas of love change in the 18th century? How did philosophy play a role in this?
• When were Valentine cards first commercially available? What does that show us about cultural ideas of love and courtship?
• What were the consequences of the desertification of the Sahara?
• How did trade links on the Red Sea influence Nubian culture?
• How did Carthage build power in Northern Africa around 600–500 BCE?
• What was the impact of the Mercenary War (241–238 BCE) in Carthage?
• How did the Roman province of Africa play a key role in financing the Roman Empire?
• What were the consequences of the Donatist division in the 300s in Northern Africa?
• What was the impact of the large-scale movement of Bedouins from the Arabian peninsula into the Maghreb?
• How was Mande society organized in the Mali Empire? 
• What was the role of the book trade in Timbuktu? What does this tell us about culture and learning in the Mali Empire?
• How did Aksum use trade to build wealth and power? 
• What do Nok terracotta sculptures tell us about Nok culture?
• How did the Luba Empire create a centralized political system? How did the idea of spiritual kins ( balopwe ) play a role in this system?
• How did tax collection work in the Lunda empire?
• What does it mean to say that the Ajuran Empire was a hydraulic empire? How did control over water resources allow the Ajuran Empire to build and consolidate power?
• What is the significance of diplomatic ties between the Somai Ajuran Empire and Ming dynasty China? 
• How did the tribute system in the Kingdom of Kongo help to stimulate interregional trade?
• What was the impact of the introduction of maize and cassava to the Kingdom of Kongo?
• How did women wield influence in the Kingdom of Benin?
• How did the Industrial Revolution in Europe help lead to the Scramble for Africa 1878–1898?
• What were the consequences of the Second Boer War?
• What happened in the Year of Africa (1960)?
• How did the Han dynasty consolidate power in frontier regions? 
• How and why did the Han dynasty nationalize the private salt and iron industries in 117 BCE?
• What are the earliest records of papermaking, and what is the significance of this invention?
• What was the role of Daoist religious societies in rebellions at the end of the Han dynasty (Yellow Turban Rebellion, Five Pecks of Rice Rebellion)?
• What do tomb paintings tell us about ancient Chinese society?
• What was the impact of the Sui dynasty’s standardization and re-unification of the coinage?
• What was the role of standardized testing in Sui dynasty and Tang dynasty China?
• Why is the Tang dynasty often regarded as a golden age of cosmopolitan culture in Chinese history?
• What was the role of slavery in imperial China? 
• How did the rise of jiedushi (regional military governments) undermine the civil-service system? What were the consequences of this?
• How did Tang dynasty China exert power over Japan and Korea?
• What was the Three Departments and Six Ministries system in imperial China and how did it work?
• What does the appearance of Inca, Maya, and Aztec goods in North America (Utah, Canada) and the appearance of goods from the Great Lakes region in Maya and Aztec ruins tell us about trade in the Pre-Columbian Americas?
• How did celebration of maize play a central role in Mesoamerican cultures?
• How did the Aztec empire use relationships with client city-states to establish power? How did the Aztec empire use taxation to exert power?
• How did the luxury good trade impact Aztec political power? 
• How did the building of roads play a key role in the Aztec empire?
• How and why has archaeology played a pivotal role in expanding our understanding of the pre-Columbian Americas?
• What are some common misconceptions about the Americas in the year 1491? Why do these misconceptions exist?

Latin American History (post-1492)

• How and why did the Spanish appropriate Aztec sites of significance (e.g. Mexico City at the site of Tenochtitlan)?
• What were reactions among Latin American intellectuals (e.g. Luis María Drago, Alejandro Álvarez and Baltasar Brum) to the Monroe Doctrine?
• How was the US’s involvement in the Venezuela Crisis of 1902–1903 a pivotal turning point in the relationship between the US and Latin American countries?
• What were the effects of the US’s involvement in the Cuban War for Independence?
• How did the Roosevelt Corollary of 1904 benefit the US?
• How did Simon Bolivar’s time in Europe affect his ideas about Latin American independence?
• How did 19th century academic societies play a role in the advancement of scientific discoveries? Who was excluded from these societies?
• How was music connected to the sciences in medieval thinking?
• When was the concept of zero first used, and how was it instrumental for advancements in math?
• What role did Islamic Spain play in the spread of scientific advancements in medieval Europe?
• What role has translation between languages played in the development of sciences?
• Why were Galileo’s ideas about astronomy controversial at the time?
• What was the connection between art and advancements in human anatomy?
• Why were Darwin’s ideas about natural selection controversial at the time?
• To what degree does the film Master and Commander accurately depict the voyages of Charles Darwin?
• How did the discovery of quinine and other medical innovations help to facilitate the European colonization of Africa?
• How and why was the internet invented?
• Does Virgil’s Aeneid celebrate the new Roman Empire or subvert it?
• Why was the poet Ovid exiled from Rome?
• What are the pagan influences in Beowulf ? What are the Christian elements in Beowulf ? What does that tell us about late Anglo-Saxon England?
• How does Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales reflect gender roles in late medieval England?
• How does Dante’s Inferno draw on book IV of Virgil’s Aeneid ? 
• How are gender roles presented and subverted in Shakespeare’s plays?
• To what degree did Henry David Thoreau live out the ideals he described in Walden in his own life?
• How did the serialized publication of novels affect the way that they were written?
• Does Dickens’ novel A Tale of Two Cities accurately portray the French Revolution?
• How did 18th-century novels propagate the idea of marrying for love?
• What did contemporary readers think about Jane Austen and her novels?
• To what degree do Jane Austen’s novels reflect economic realities for women in Regency England? What do they leave out?
• How did Lord Byron’s personal life affect his poetry?
• What do we know about the romantic life of Emily Dickinson?
• What were the religious movements that influenced the writer George Eliot, and how do those influences appear in her novels?
• In what ways were Walt Whitman’s writings new or different?
• How did British poets react to the horrors of Word War I?
• What do Tolkien’s letters reveal about the ways in which the two world wars influenced his writings?
• How did the friendship between CS Lewis and Tolkien affect their respective writings?
• What are the arguments for and against Catalonian independence from Spain?
• What are the arguments for and against Scottish independence from the United Kingdom?
• What are some risks of contact sports, especially for children?
• What are the most effective policies for combating childhood obesity?
• What are the most effective policies for reducing gun violence?
• Which countries have the longest life expectancy and why?
• What are some differences between the healthcare system in the US and in European countries? Which country has the most similar system to the US?
• What policies for parental leave exist in different countries? What are some effects of these policies?
• Has the drinking age in the US always been 21? What have been some different policies, and what were some consequences of them?
• What is the debate around museum artifacts like the Elgin Marbles in London or the Benin Bronzes in Berlin?
• How have politicians attempted to control population growth in different countries, either directly or indirectly? What have been some effects of these policies?
• Which countries have the most gender parity reflected in national governments? How have they accomplished this?
• How has public funding of K-12 education changed since the 1930s in the US? 
• How has public funding of higher education changed in the US?
• What is early childhood education like in different countries?
• What are some effects of free or reduced-cost meals in schools?
• How does access to menstrual products affect education outcomes for girls in different countries?
• What was the impact of Rousseau’s writings on education?
• How did Plato’s ideal forms of government reflect contemporary Athenian concerns about the unruly masses ( demos )?
• How did Aristotle justify slavery?
• How has wealth inequality increased in recent decades?
• How is inflation calculated, and what are the implications of this methodology?
• How have genetically-engineered crops changed the way that the planet feeds itself?
• How has animal testing changed since 2000?
• How is animal testing regulated differently in different countries?

Health Sciences and Psychology

• How do different societies reflect the natural circadian rhythms of the human body?
• How does secondhand smoke affect the human body?
• How does lack of sleep affect the body?
• How does stress affect the body?
• What are some ways to reduce stress?
• How have cancer treatments changed in the past 30 years?
• Why is it hard to find a “cure” for cancer?
• How has the Human Genome Project changed medical science?
• How were the Covid vaccines developed so quickly? What is the difference between the various Covid vaccines that have been developed?

Ready to start working on your research paper?

Our Ivy-League tutors can provide one-on-one writing coaching . Get expert help in selecting a topic that fits your assignment, finding research sources, creating an outline, drafting your paper, and revising for clarity.

Our writing coaches have helped students turn B- papers to A+ papers with just a few sessions together. We have experience working with students of all ages and writing abilities, from middle school students to college students at the nation’s top universities. What’s more, we’ll teach you how to write so that it’s easier the next time around!

A few times per year we also offer our bestselling academic writing workshop . Save your spot here !

Related posts

99 Great Handpicked Ideas for Argumentative Essays 12 Essential Steps for Writing an Argumentative Essay The 13 SAT and ACT Grammar Rules to Know 16 Essential Literary Devices to Know

Emily graduated  summa cum laude  from Princeton University and holds an MA from the University of Notre Dame. She was a National Merit Scholar and has won numerous academic prizes and fellowships. A veteran of the publishing industry, she has helped professors at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton revise their books and articles. Over the last decade, Emily has successfully mentored hundreds of students in all aspects of the college admissions process, including the SAT, ACT, and college application essay. 

CHECK OUT THESE RELATED POSTS

How to Write Vanderbilt’s Supplemental Essays for 2024-2025

September 4, 2024

For this application cycle, Vanderbilt only has one supplemental essay prompts, which you’ll have to answer with a maximum of …

How to Write Villanova’s Supplemental Essays for 2024-2025

For this application cycle, we’ve got good news. Although Villanova has 5 supplemental essay prompts, the word count is quite short. Plus, you’ll only have to choose…

How to Answer the Harvard Supplemental Essay Prompts (2024-2025)

September 3, 2024

What are the Harvard supplemental essay prompts for 2020-2021? And how should you respond to them successfully? We've got the answers.

How to write the Princeton supplemental essays (2024-2025)

August 28, 2024

What are the 6 Princeton supplemental essay prompts? And how should you respond to each? We answer both questions in this detailed post.

How to Write Boston College’s Supplemental Essays for 2024-2025

August 24, 2024

For this application cycle, we’ve got good news. Although Boston College has 4 supplemental essay prompts, you’ll only have to choose one. The word count for this essay…

How to Write the Dartmouth Supplemental Essays for 2024-2025

August 20, 2024

Add excerpt here. Can reuse meta description.

How to Write Yale’s Supplemental Essays (With Real Examples) 2024-2025

This application cycle, Yale’s supplemental essay set is quite intense. To help you, we’ve got detailed guides for each one, plus real Yale sample essays from previous years for…

How to Write the University of Chicago Supplemental Essays for 2024-2025

For this application cycle, University of Chicago once again has a set of unusual supplemental essay prompts. We take a look at each prompt, then analyze a real University of Chicago sample essay to…

Colleges that Require SAT/ACT Scores 2024/2025

August 7, 2024

While test-optional policies came into effect at many colleges during the pandemic, that’s now changing. Schools like Harvard, Brown, and Dartmouth …

101 Colleges with Late Deadlines

Every college has different deadlines, but most of them tend to be around the start or middle of January. But some colleges will allow you to submit applications far later, which can be an important…

Privacy Preference Center

Privacy preferences.

Have a language expert improve your writing

Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, automatically generate references for free.

• Knowledge Base
• Methodology
• Primary Research | Definition, Types, & Examples

Primary Research | Definition, Types, & Examples

Published on 15 January 2023 by Tegan George .

Primary research is a research method that relies on direct data collection , rather than relying on data that’s already been collected by someone else. In other words, primary research is any type of research that you undertake yourself, firsthand, while using data that has already been collected is called secondary research.

Primary research is often used in qualitative research , particularly in survey methodology, questionnaires, focus groups, and various types of interviews . While quantitative primary research does exist, it’s not as common.

Table of contents

When to use primary research, types of primary research, examples of primary research, advantages and disadvantages of primary research, frequently asked questions.

Primary research is any research that you conduct yourself. It can be as simple as a 2-question survey, or as in-depth as a years-long longitudinal study . The only key is that data must be collected firsthand by you.

Primary research is often used to supplement or strengthen existing secondary research. It is usually exploratory in nature, concerned with examining a research question where no preexisting knowledge exists. It is also sometimes called original research for this reason.

Prevent plagiarism, run a free check.

Primary research can take many forms, but the most common types are:

• Surveys and questionnaire
• Observational studies
• Interviews and focus groups
• Surveys and questionnaires

Surveys and questionnaires collect information about a group of people by asking them questions and analyzing the results. They are a solid choice if your research topic seeks to investigate something about the characteristics, preferences, opinions, or beliefs of a group of people.

Surveys and questionnaires can take place online, in person, or through the mail. It is best to have a combination of open-ended and closed-ended questions, and how the questions are phrased matters. Be sure to avoid leading questions, and ask any related questions in groups, starting with the most basic ones first.

Observational studies are an easy and popular way to answer a research question based purely on what you, the researcher, observes. If there are practical or ethical concerns that prevent you from conducting a traditional experiment , observational studies are often a good stopgap.

There are three types of observational studies: cross-sectional studies , cohort studies, and case-control studies. If you decide to conduct observational research, you can choose the one that’s best for you. All three are quite straightforward and easy to design – just beware of confounding variables and observer bias creeping into your analysis.

Similarly to surveys and questionnaires, interviews and focus groups also rely on asking questions to collect information about a group of people. However, how this is done is slightly different. Instead of sending your questions out into the world, interviews and focus groups involve two or more people – one of whom is you, the interviewer, who asks the questions.

There are 3 main types of interviews:

• Structured interviews ask predetermined questions in a predetermined order.
• Unstructured interviews are more flexible and free-flowing, proceeding based on the interviewee’s previous answers.
• Semi-structured interviews fall in between, asking a mix of predetermined questions and off-the-cuff questions.

While interviews are a rich source of information, they can also be deceptively challenging to do well. Be careful of interviewer bias creeping into your process. This is best mitigated by avoiding double-barreled questions and paying close attention to your tone and delivery while asking questions.

Alternatively, a focus group is a group interview, led by a moderator. Focus groups can provide more nuanced interactions than individual interviews, but their small sample size means that external validity is low.

Primary research can often be quite simple to pursue yourself. Here are a few examples of different research methods you can use to explore different topics.

Primary research is a great choice for many research projects, but it has distinct advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages of primary research

Advantages include:

• The ability to conduct really tailored, thorough research, down to the ‘nitty-gritty’ of your topic . You decide what you want to study or observe and how to go about doing that.
• You maintain control over the quality of the data collected, and can ensure firsthand that it is objective, reliable , and valid .
• The ensuing results are yours, for you to disseminate as you see fit. You maintain proprietary control over what you find out, allowing you to share your findings with like-minded individuals or those conducting related research that interests you for replication or discussion purposes.

Disadvantages of primary research

Disadvantages include:

• In order to be done well, primary research can be very expensive and time consuming. If you are constrained in terms of time or funding, it can be very difficult to conduct your own high-quality primary research.
• Primary research is often insufficient as a standalone research method, requiring secondary research to bolster it.
• Primary research can be prone to various types of research bias . Bias can manifest on the part of the researcher as observer bias , Pygmalion effect , or demand characteristics . It can occur on the part of participants as a Hawthorne effect or social desirability bias .

The 3 main types of primary research are:

Exploratory research explores the main aspects of a new or barely researched question.

Explanatory research explains the causes and effects of an already widely researched question.

There are several methods you can use to decrease the impact of confounding variables on your research: restriction, matching, statistical control, and randomisation.

In restriction , you restrict your sample by only including certain subjects that have the same values of potential confounding variables.

In matching , you match each of the subjects in your treatment group with a counterpart in the comparison group. The matched subjects have the same values on any potential confounding variables, and only differ in the independent variable .

In statistical control , you include potential confounders as variables in your regression .

In randomisation , you randomly assign the treatment (or independent variable) in your study to a sufficiently large number of subjects, which allows you to control for all potential confounding variables.

A questionnaire is a data collection tool or instrument, while a survey is an overarching research method that involves collecting and analysing data from people using questionnaires.

When conducting research, collecting original data has significant advantages:

• You can tailor data collection to your specific research aims (e.g., understanding the needs of your consumers or user testing your website).
• You can control and standardise the process for high reliability and validity (e.g., choosing appropriate measurements and sampling methods ).

However, there are also some drawbacks: data collection can be time-consuming, labour-intensive, and expensive. In some cases, it’s more efficient to use secondary data that has already been collected by someone else, but the data might be less reliable.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the ‘Cite this Scribbr article’ button to automatically add the citation to our free Reference Generator.

George, T. (2023, January 15). Primary Research | Definition, Types, & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved 16 September 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/research-methods/primary-research-explained/

Is this article helpful?

Tegan George

Other students also liked, data collection methods | step-by-step guide & examples, observer bias | definition, examples, prevention, what is qualitative research | methods & examples.

Main Navigation Menu

Peer-review and primary research.

• Getting Started With Peer-Reviewed Literature

Primary Research

Identifying a primary research article.

• Finding Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
• Finding Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs)
• Evaluating Scholarly Articles
• Google Scholar
• Tips for Reading Journal Articles

STEM Librarian

Primary research or a primary study refers to a research article that is an author’s original research that is almost always published in a peer-reviewed journal. A primary study reports on the details, methods and results of a research study. These articles often have a standard structure of a format called IMRAD, referring to sections of an article: Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion. Primary research studies will start with a review of the previous literature, however, the rest of the article will focus on the authors’ original research. Literature reviews can be published in peer-reviewed journals, however, they are not primary research.

Primary studies are part of primary sources but should not be mistaken for primary documents. Primary documents are usually original sources such as a letter, a diary, a speech or an autobiography. They are a first person view of an event or a period. Typically, if you are a Humanities major, you will be asked to find primary documents for your paper however, if you are in Social Sciences or the Sciences you are most likely going to be asked to find primary research studies. If you are unsure, ask your professor or a librarian for help.

A primary research or study is an empirical research that is published in peer-reviewed journals. Some ways of recognizing whether an article is a primary research article when searching a database:

1. The abstract includes a research question or a hypothesis,  methods and results.

2. Studies can have tables and charts representing data findings.

3. The article includes a section for "methods” or “methodology” and "results".

4. Discussion section indicates findings and discusses limitations of the research study, and suggests further research.

5. Check the reference section because it will refer you to the studies and works that were consulted. You can use this section to find other studies on that particular topic.

The following are not to be confused with primary research articles:

- Literature reviews

- Meta-analyses or systematic reviews (these studies make conclusions based on research on many other studies)

• << Previous: Getting Started With Peer-Reviewed Literature
• Next: Finding Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles >>
• Last Updated: Feb 15, 2024 2:45 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.ucmo.edu/peerreview

• +44 (0) 207 391 9032

Recent Posts

• Abstract vs. Introduction: What’s the Difference?
• How Do AI detectors Work? Breaking Down the Algorithm
• What is a Literature Review? Definition, Types, and Examples
• Why Is Your CV Getting Rejected and How to Avoid It
• Where to Find Images for Presentations
• What Is an Internship? Everything You Should Know
• How Long Should a Thesis Statement Be?
• How to Write a Character Analysis Essay
• Best Colours for Your PowerPoint Presentation: Top Colour Combinations
• How to Write a Nursing Essay – With Examples
• Academic News
• Custom Essays
• Dissertation Writing
• Essay Marking
• Essay Writing
• Essay Writing Companies
• Model Essays
• Model Exam Answers
• Oxbridge Essays Updates
• PhD Writing
• Significant Academics
• Student News
• Study Skills
• University Applications
• University Essays
• University Life
• Writing Tips

A complete guide to dissertation primary research

(Last updated: 7 May 2021)

Since 2006, Oxbridge Essays has been the UK’s leading paid essay-writing and dissertation service

We have helped 10,000s of undergraduate, Masters and PhD students to maximise their grades in essays, dissertations, model-exam answers, applications and other materials. If you would like a free chat about your project with one of our UK staff, then please just reach out on one of the methods below.

For many students, including those who are at postgraduate level or well-versed in the dissertation process, the prospect of primary research can be somewhat daunting.

But we are here to help quell those pesky nerves you may be feeling if you are faced with doing primary research for your dissertation.

Now, this is an ultimate guide and therefore contains plenty of information. To make it easier to digest and jump between sections, here's a summary of its contents:

Step 1: Decide on the type of data

Step 2: decide on primary research methodology.

Steps 3 – 8 if you have chosen a qualitative method

Steps 3 – 8 if you have chosen a quantitative method

Steps 3 – 8 if you have chosen a mixed method

Other steps you need to consider

The reasons that students can feel so wary of primary research can be many-fold. From a lack of knowledge of primary research methods, to a loathing for statistics, or an absence of the sufficient skills required… The apprehension that students can feel towards primary research for their dissertation is often comparable to the almost insurmountable levels of stress before exams.

And yet, there’s a significant difference between doing primary research and sitting exams. The former is far more engaging, rewarding, varied, and dare we say it, even fun. You’re in the driving seat and you get to ask the questions. What’s more, students carrying out primary research have an opportunity to make small contributions to their field, which can feel really satisfying – for many, it’s their first taste of being a researcher, rather than just a learner.

Now, if you’re reading this and scoffing at our steadfast enthusiasm for primary research, we’ll let you in on a little secret – doing research actually isn’t that difficult. It’s a case of learning to follow specific procedures and knowing when to make particular decisions.

Which is where this guide comes in; it offers step-by-step advice on these procedures and decisions, so you can use it to support you both before and during your dissertation research process.

As set out below, there are different primary research methodologies that you can choose from. The first two steps are the same for whatever method you choose; after that, the steps you take depend on the methodology you have chosen.

Primary data has been collected by the researcher himself or herself. When doing primary research for your undergraduate or graduate degrees, you will most commonly rely on this type of data. It is often said that primary data is “real time” data, meaning that it has been collected at the time of the research project. Here, the data collection is under the direct control of the researcher.

Secondary data has been collected by somebody else in the past and is usually accessible via past researchers, government sources, and various online and offline records. This type of data is referred to as “past data”, because it has been collected in the past. Using secondary data is relatively easy since you do not have to collect any data yourself. However, it is not always certain that secondary data would be 100% relevant for your project, since it was collected with a different research question in mind. Furthermore, there may be questions over the accuracy of secondary data.

Big data is the most complex type of data, which is why it is almost never used during undergraduate or graduate studies. Big data is characterised by three Vs: high volume of data, wide variety of the type of data, and high velocity with which the data is processed. Due to the complexity of big data, standard data processing procedures do not apply and you would need intense training to learn how to process it.

Qualitative research is exploratory in nature. This means that qualitative research is often conducted when there are no quantitative investigations on the topic, and you are seeking to explore the topic for the first time. This exploration is achieved by considering the perspectives of specific individuals. You are concerned with particular meanings that reflect a dynamic (rather than fixed) reality. By observing or interviewing people, you can come to an understanding of their own perception of reality.

Quantitative research is confirmatory in nature. Thus, the main goal is to confirm or disconfirm hypotheses by relying on statistical analyses. In quantitative research, you will be concerned with numerical data that reflects a fixed and measurable (rather than dynamic) reality. Using large samples and testing your participants through reliable tools, you are seeking to generalise your findings to the broader population.

Mixed research combines qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The goal is to gain a more thorough understanding of a topic than would be possible by relying on a single methodological approach. Usually, a mixed method involves doing qualitative research first, which is then supplemented by quantitative research.

Thus, first you explore a phenomenon through a low-scale study that focuses on the meanings of particular individuals, and then you seek to form a hypothesis and test it with a larger sample. You can rely on other mixed methodologies as well, which will be described later.

What to do if you have chosen a qualitative method

Step 3: be aware of strengths and limitations.

Still, there are many things that you cannot achieve with qualitative research. Since you are investigating a select group of people, you cannot generalise your findings to the broader population. With qualitative methodology, it is also harder to establish the quality of research. Here, the quality depends on your own skills and your ability to avoid bias while interpreting findings. Finally, qualitative research involves interpreting multiple perspectives, which makes it harder to reach a consensus and establish a “bottom line” of your results and conclusions.

Step 4: Select a specific qualitative method

An observation, as its name implies, involves observing a group of individuals within their own setting. As a researcher, your role is to immerse yourself in this setting and observe the behaviour of interest. You may either become involved with your participants, therefore taking a participating role, or you can act as a bystander and observer. You will need to complete an observation checklist, which you will have made in advance, on which you will note how your participants behaved.

Interviews are the most common qualitative method. In interviews, your role is to rely on predetermined questions that explore participants’ understanding, opinions, attitudes, feelings, and the like. Depending on your research topic, you may also deviate from your question structure to explore whatever appears relevant in the present moment. The main aim is always to understand participants’ own subjective perspectives.

Focus groups are like interviews, except that they are conducted with more than one person. Participants in a focus group are several individuals usually from different demographic backgrounds. Your role is to engage them in an open discussion and to explore their understanding of a topic.

In both interviews and focus groups, you should record your sessions and transcribe them afterwards.

Case studies focus on a particular person or organisation relevant to your research topic. The reason why such individuals and organisations are chosen for the case study is that they offer an interesting, unusual, or particularly revealing set of circumstances. Your role is to explore how the case study informs your investigation.

Step 5: Select participants

To establish who these individuals (or organisation) will be, you must consult your research question. You also need to decide on the number of participants, which is generally low in qualitative research, and to decide whether participants should be from similar or different backgrounds. Ask yourself: What needs to connect them and what needs to differentiate them?

Selecting your participants involves deciding how you will recruit them. An observation study, usually has a predetermined context in which your participants operate, and this makes recruitment straightforward since you know where your participants are. A case study does not necessitate recruitment, since your subject of investigation is a predefined person or organisation.

However, interviews and focus groups need a more elaborate approach to recruitment as your participants need to represent a certain target group. A common recruitment method here is the snowball technique, where your existing participants themselves recruit more participants. Otherwise, you need to identify what connects your participants and try to recruit them at a location where they all operate.

Also remember that your participants always need to sign an informed consent, therefore agreeing to take part in the research (see Step 9 below for more information about informed consent and research ethics).

Step 6: Select measures

Observation studies usually involve a checklist on which you note your observations. Focus groups, interviews, and most case studies use structured or semi-structured interviews. Structured interviews rely on a predetermined set of questions, whereas semi-structured interviews combine predetermined questions with an opportunity to explore the responses further.

In most circumstances, you will want to use semi-structured interviews because they enable you to elicit more detailed responses.

When using observations, you will need to craft your observation checklist; when using interviews, you will need to craft your interview questions. Observation checklists are easy to create, since they involve your predetermined focuses of observation. These may include participants’ names (or numbers if they are to remain anonymous), their demographic characteristics, and whatever it is that you are observing.

When crafting interview questions, you will need to consult your research question, and sometimes also the relevant literature. For instance, if your interviews focus on the motivations for playing computer games, you can craft general questions that relate to your research question – such as, “what motivates you to play computer games the most?”.

However, by searching the relevant literature, you may discover that some people play games because they feel competent, and then decide to ask your subjects, “does playing games satisfy your need for competence?”

No matter what informs your creation of an observation checklist or interview questions, you should always consult your supervisor for advice.

Step 7: Select analyses

With qualitative research, your data analysis relies on coding and finding themes in your data.

The process of coding should be straightforward. You simply need to read through your observation checklist or interview transcripts and underline each interesting observation or answer.

Finding themes in your data involves grouping the coded observations/answers into patterns. This is a simple process of grouping codes, which may require some time, but is usually interesting work. There are different procedures to choose from while coding and finding themes in your data. These include thematic analysis, interpretative phenomenological analysis, constant comparative analysis, narrative analysis, and discourse analysis. Let’s define each of these.

Thematic analysis is the most commonly used procedure. The goal is to code data, search for themes among the codes, review themes, and name themes. Interpretative phenomenological analysis is done in the same way as a thematic analysis, but with a special focus on understanding how a given person, in a given context, makes sense of a phenomenon.

In constant comparative analysis, one piece of data (one theme, one statement) is compared to all others to detect similarities or differences; this comparison aims at understanding the relations between the data. Narrative analysis also extracts themes, but it focuses on the way that participants represent their experiences linguistically.

Finally, discourse analysis also focuses on language, but the goal is to understand how language relates to the influences that shape people’s thoughts and behaviours.

Step 8: Understand procedure

During observations and interviews, you are collecting your data. As noted previously, you always need to record your interviews and transcribe them afterwards. Observation checklists merely need to be completed during observations.

Once your data has been collected, you can then analyse your results, after which you should be ready to write your final report.

What to do if you have chosen a quantitative method

Quantitative research also enables you to test hypotheses and to determine causality. Determining causality is possible because a quantitative method allows you to control for extraneous variables (confounders) that may affect the relationship between certain variables. Finally, by using standardised procedures, your quantitative study can be replicated in the future, either by you or by other researchers.

At the same time, however, quantitative research also has certain limitations. For instance, this type of research is not as effective at understanding in-depth perceptions of people, simply because it seeks to average their responses and get a “bottom line” of their answers.

In addition, quantitative research often uses self-report measures and there can never be certainty that participants were honest. Sometimes, quantitative research does not include enough contextual information for the interpretation of results. Finally, a failure to correctly select your participants, measures and analyses might lower the generalisability and accuracy of your findings.

Step 4: Select a specific quantitative method

Let’s look at each of these separately.

Descriptive research is used when you want to describe characteristics of a population or a phenomenon. For instance, if you want to describe how many college students use drugs and which drugs are most commonly used, then you can use descriptive research.

You are not seeking to establish the relationship between different variables, but merely to describe the phenomenon in question. Thus, descriptive research is never used to establish causation.

Correlational research is used when you are investigating a relationship between two or more variables. The concept of independent and dependent variables is important for correlational research.

An independent variable is one that you control to test the effects on the dependent variable. For example, if you want to see how intelligence affects people’s critical thinking, intelligence is your independent variable and critical thinking is your dependent variable.

In scientific jargon, correlation tests whether an independent variable relates to the levels of the dependent variable(s). Note that correlation never establishes causation – it merely tests a relationship between variables.

You can also control for the effect of a third variable, which is called a covariate or a confounder. For instance, you may want to see if intelligence relates to critical thinking after controlling for people’s abstract reasoning.

The reason why you might want to control for this variable is that abstract reasoning is related to both intelligence and critical thinking. Thus, you are trying to specify a more direct relationship between intelligence and critical thinking by removing the variable that “meddles in between”.

Experiments aim to establish causation. This is what differentiates them from descriptive and correlational research. To establish causation, experiments manipulate the independent variable.

Or, to put this another way, experiments have two or more conditions of the independent variable and they test their effect on the dependent variable. Here’s an example: You want to test if a new supplement (independent variable) increases people’s concentration (dependent variable). You need a reference point – something to compare this effect to. Thus, you compare the effect of a supplement to a placebo, by giving some of your participants a sugary pill.

Now your independent variable is the type of treatment, with two conditions – supplement and placebo. By comparing the concentration levels (dependent variable) between participants who received the supplement versus placebo (independent variable), you can determine if the supplement caused increased concentration.

Experiments can have two types of designs: between-subjects and within-subjects. The above example illustrated a between-subjects design because concentration levels were compared between participants who got a supplement and those who got a placebo.

But you can also do a within-subjects comparison. For example, you may want to see if taking a supplement before or after a meal impacts concentration levels differently. Here, your independent variable is the time the supplement is taken (with two conditions: before and after the meal). You then ask the same group of participants to take on Day 1 the supplement before the meal and on Day 2 after the meal.

Since both conditions apply to all your participants, you are making a within-subjects comparison. Regardless of the type of design you are using, when assigning participants to a condition, you need to ensure that you do so randomly.

A quasi-experiment is not a true experiment. It differs from a true experiment because it lacks random assignment to different conditions. You would use a quasi-experiment when your participants are grouped into different conditions according to a predetermined characteristic.

For instance, you may want to see if children are less likely than adolescents to cheat on a test. Here, you are categorising your participants according to their age and thus you cannot use random assignment. Because of this, it is often said that quasi-experiments cannot properly establish causation.

Nonetheless, they are a useful tool for looking at differences between predetermined groups of participants.

A very good practice is to rely on a G-Power analysis to calculate how large your sample size should be in order to increase the accuracy of your findings. G-Power analysis, for which you can download a program online, is based on a consideration of previous studies’ effect sizes, significance levels, and power.

Thus, you will need to find a study that investigated a similar effect, dig up its reported effect size, significance level and power, and enter these parameters in a G-Power analysis. There are many guides online on how to do this.

When selecting participants for your quantitative research, you also need to ensure that they are representative of the target population. You can do this by specifying your inclusion and exclusion criteria.

For instance, if your target population consists of young women who have given birth and who have depression, then you will include only women who have given birth, who are younger than 35, and who have depression. Consequently, you will exclude women who do not fulfil these criteria.

Remember that here, just as in qualitative research, you need informed consent from your participants, therefore ensuring that they have agreed to take part in the research.

A questionnaire is reliable when it has led to consistent results across studies, and it is valid when it measures what it is supposed to measure. You can claim that a questionnaire is valid and reliable when previous studies have established its validity and reliability (you must cite these studies, of course).

Moreover, you can test the reliability of a questionnaire yourself, by calculating its Cronbach’s Alpha value in a statistics programme, such as SPSS. Values higher than 0.7 indicate acceptable reliability, values higher than 0.8 indicate good reliability, and values higher than 0.9 indicate excellent reliability. Anything below 0.7 indicates unreliability.

You can always consult your supervisor about which questionnaires to use in your study. Alternatively, you can search for questionnaires yourself by looking at previous studies and the kind of measures they employed.

Each questionnaire that you decide to use will require you to calculate final scores. You can obtain the guidelines for calculating final scores in previous studies that used a given questionnaire. You will complete this calculation by relying on a statistical program.

Very often, this calculation will involve reverse-scoring some items. For instance, a questionnaire may ask “are you feeling good today?”, where a response number of 5 means “completely agree”. Then you can have another question that asks “are you feeling bad today?”, where a response number of 5 again means “completely agree”. If your questionnaire measures whether a person feels good, then you will have to reverse-score the second of these questions so that higher responses indicate feeling more (rather than less) good. This can also be done using a statistics program.

However, there is no reason why they should, since the whole procedure of doing statistical analyses is not that difficult – you just need to know which analysis to use for which purpose and to read guidelines on how to do particular analyses (online and in books). Let’s provide specific examples.

If you are doing descriptive research, your analyses will rely on descriptive and/or frequencies statistics.

Descriptive statistics include calculating means and standard deviations for continuous variables, and frequencies statistics include calculating the number and percentage of the frequencies of answers on categorical variables.

Continuous variables are those where final scores have a wide range. For instance, participants’ age is a continuous variable, because the final scores can range from 1 year to 100 years. Here, you calculate a mean and say that your participants were, on average, 37.7 years old (for example).

Another example of a continuous variable are responses from a questionnaire where you need to calculate a final score. For example, if your questionnaire assessed the degree of satisfaction with medical services, on a scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 5 (completely), and there are ten questions on the questionnaire, you will have a final score for each participant that ranges from 10 to 50. This is a continuous variable and you can calculate the final mean score (and standard deviation) for your whole sample.

Categorical variables are those that do not result in final scores, but result in categorising participants in specific categories. An example of a categorical variable is gender, because your participants are categorised as either male or female. Here, your final report will say something like “50 (50%) participants were male and 50 (50%) were female”.

Please note that you will have to do descriptive and frequencies statistics in all types of quantitative research, even if your research is not descriptive research per se. They are needed when you describe the demographic characteristics of your sample (participants’ age, gender, education level, and the like).

When doing correlational research, you will perform a correlation or a regression analysis. Correlation analysis is done when you want to see if levels of an independent variable relate to the levels of a dependent variable (for example, “is intelligence related to critical thinking?”).

You will need to check if your data is normally distributed – that is, if the histogram that summarises the data has a bell-shaped curve. This can be done by creating a histogram in a statistics program, the guidelines for which you can find online. If you conclude that your data is normally distributed, you will rely on a Pearson correlation analysis; if your data is not normally distributed, you will use a Spearman correlation analysis. You can also include a covariate (such as people’s abstract reasoning) and see if a correlation exists between two variables after controlling for a covariate.

Regression analysis is done when you want to see if levels of an independent variable(s) predict levels of a dependent variable (for example, “does intelligence predict critical thinking?”). Regression is useful because it allows you to control for various confounders simultaneously. Thus, you can investigate if intelligence predicts critical thinking after controlling for participants’ abstract reasoning, age, gender, educational level, and the like. You can find online resources on how to interpret a regression analysis.

When you are conducting experiments and quasi-experiments, you are using t-tests, ANOVA (analysis of variance), or MANCOVA (multivariate analysis of variance).

Independent samples t-tests are used when you have one independent variable with two conditions (such as giving participants a supplement versus a placebo) and one dependent variable (such as concentration levels). This test is called “independent samples” because you have different participants in your two conditions.

As noted above, this is a between-subjects design. Thus, with an independent samples t-test you are seeking to establish if participants who were given a supplement, versus those who were given a placebo, show different concentration levels. If you have a within-subjects design, you will use a paired samples t-test. This test is called “paired” because you compare the same group of participants on two paired conditions (such as taking a supplement before versus after a meal).

Thus, with a paired samples t-test, you are establishing whether concentration levels (dependent variable) at Time 1 (taking a supplement before the meal) are different than at Time 2 (taking a supplement after the meal).

There are two main types of ANOVA analysis. One-way ANOVA is used when you have more than two conditions of an independent variable.

For instance, you would use a one-way ANOVA in a between-subjects design, where you are testing the effects of the type of treatment (independent variable) on concentration levels (dependent variable), while having three conditions of the independent variable, such as supplement (condition 1), placebo (condition 2), and concentration training (condition 3).

Two-way ANOVA, on the other hand, is used when you have more than one independent variable.

For instance, you may want to see if there is an interaction between the type of treatment (independent variable with three conditions: supplement, placebo, and concentration training) and gender (independent variable with two conditions: male and female) on participants’ concentration (dependent variable).

Finally, MANCOVA is used when you have one or more independent variables, but you also have more than one dependent variable.

For example, you would use MANCOVA if you are testing the effect of the type of treatment (independent variable with three conditions: supplement, placebo, and concentration training) on two dependent variables (such as concentration and an ability to remember information correctly).

If you are doing an experiment, once you have recruited your participants, you need to randomly assign them to conditions. If you are doing quasi-experimental research, you will have a specific procedure for predetermining which participant goes to which condition. For instance, if you are comparing children versus adolescents, you will categorise them according to their age. In the case of descriptive and correlational research, you don’t need to categorise your participants.

Furthermore, with all procedures you need to introduce your participants to the research and give them an informed consent. Then you will provide them with the specific measures you are using.

Sometimes, it is good practice to counterbalance the order of questionnaires. This means that some participants will get Questionnaire 1 first, and others will be given Questionnaire 2 first.

Counterbalancing is important to remove the possibility of the “order effects”, whereby the order of the presentation of questionnaires influences results.

At the end of your study, you will “debrief” your participants, meaning that you will explain to them the actual purpose of the research. After doing statistical analysis, you will need to write a final report.

What to do if you have chosen a mixed method

Quantitative research, on the other hand, is limited because it does not lead to an in-depth understanding of particular meanings and contexts – something that qualitative research makes up for. Thus, by using the mixed method, the strengths of each approach are making up for their respective weaknesses. You can, therefore, obtain more information about your research question than if you relied on a single methodology.

Mixed research has, however, some limitations. One of its main limitations is that research design can be quite complex. It can also take much more time to plan mixed research than to plan qualitative or quantitative research.

Sometimes, you may experience difficulties in bridging your results because you need to combine the results of qualitative and quantitative research. Finally, you may find it difficult to resolve discrepancies that occur when you interpret your results.

For these reasons, mixed research needs to be done and interpreted with care.

Step 4: Select a specific mixed method

Let’s address each of these separately.

Sequential exploratory design is a method whereby qualitative research is done first and quantitative research is done second. By following this order, you can investigate a topic in-depth first, and then supplement it with numerical data. This method is useful if you want to test the elements of a theory that stems from qualitative research and if you want to generalise qualitative findings to different population samples.

Sequential explanatory design is when quantitative research is done first and qualitative research is done second. Here, priority is given to quantitative data. The goal of subsequent collection of qualitative data is to help you interpret the quantitative data. This design is used when you want to engage in an in-depth explanation, interpretation, and contextualisation of quantitative findings. Alternatively, you can use it when you obtain unexpected results from quantitative research, which you then want to clarify through qualitative data.

Concurrent triangulation design involves the simultaneous use of qualitative and quantitative data collection. Here, equal weighting is given to both methods and the analysis of both types of data is done both separately and simultaneously.

This design is used when you want to obtain detailed information about a topic and when you want to cross-validate your findings. Cross-validation is a statistical procedure for estimating the performance of a theoretical model that predicts something. Although you may decide to use concurrent triangulation during your research, you will probably not be asked to cross-validate the findings, since this is a complex procedure.

Concurrent nested design is when you collect qualitative and quantitative data at the same time, but you employ a dominant method (qualitative or quantitative) that nests or embeds the less dominant method (for example, if the dominant method is quantitative, the less dominant would be qualitative).

What this nesting means is that your less dominant method addresses a different research question than that addressed by your dominant method. The results of the two types of methods are then combined in the final work output. Concurrent nested design is the most complex form of mixed designs, which is why you are not expected to use it during your undergraduate or graduate studies, unless you have been specifically asked.

In summary, participants in the qualitative part of the investigation will be several individuals who are relevant for your research project. Conversely, your sample size for the quantitative part of the investigation will be higher, including many participants chosen as representative of your target population.

You will also need to rely on different recruitment strategies when selecting participants for qualitative versus quantitative research.

An in-depth explanation of these measures has been provided in the sections above dealing with qualitative and quantitative research respectively.

In summary, qualitative research relies on the use of observations or interviews, which you usually need to craft yourself. Quantitative research relies on the use of reliable and valid questionnaires, which you can take from past research.

Sometimes, within the mixed method, you will be required to craft a questionnaire on the basis of the results of your qualitative research. This is especially likely if you are using the sequential exploratory design, where you seek to validate the results of your qualitative research through subsequent quantitative data.

In any case, a mixed method requires a special emphasis on aligning your qualitative and quantitative measures, so that they address the same topic. You can always consult your supervisor on how to do this.

In general, qualitative investigations require you to thematically analyse your data, which is done through coding participants’ answers or your observations and finding themes among the codes. You can rely on a thematic analysis, interpretative phenomenological analysis, constant comparative analysis, narrative analysis, and discourse analysis.

Quantitative investigations require you to do statistical analyses, the choice of which depends on the type of quantitative design you are using. Thus, you will use descriptive statistics if you do descriptive research, correlation or regression if you are doing correlational research, and a t-test, ANOVA, or MANCOVA if you are doing an experiment or a quasi-experiment.

The reverse is true if you are using the sequential explanatory design. Concurrent triangulation and concurrent nested designs require you to perform the qualitative and quantitative parts of the investigation simultaneously; what differentiates them is whether you are (or are not) prioritising one (either qualitative or quantitative) as a predominant method.

Regardless of your mixed design, you will need to follow specific procedures for qualitative and quantitative research, all of which have been described above.

Step 9: Think about ethics

Some studies deal with especially vulnerable groups of people or with sensitive topics. It is extremely important, therefore, that no harm is done to your participants.

Before beginning your primary research, you will submit your research proposal to an ethics committee. Here, you will specify how you will deal with all possible ethical issues that may arise during your study. Even if your primary research is deemed as ethical, you will need to comply with certain rules and conduct to satisfy the ethical requirements. These consist of providing informed consent, ensuring confidentiality and the protection of participants, allowing a possibility to withdraw from the study, and providing debriefing.

Informed consent ensures that participants have understood the research and have agreed to participate. Regardless of the type of research you are doing, you will solicit informed consents. Participants can provide consent by signing a printed or an online consent form. If your participants cannot provide an online signature, you can simply tell them that, by proceeding to the next page of the questionnaire, they are agreeing to take part in the research.

Informed consent needs to be signed by individuals who are older than 18. If your participants are younger, you will need to obtain consent from parents or legal guardians. Finally, for a variety of reasons it may sometimes be impossible to obtain an informed consent from your participants. If so, you can ask a similar group of people how they would feel to take part in your study; if they agree to participate, you have obtained a “presumptive consent”.

Confidentiality of your participants is ensured through keeping all data anonymous. Thus, you will never ask for your participants’ names – instead, you will provide each with a participant number. Even if you are reporting interviews with several participants, you shouldn’t refer to them by names, but by their initials.

It is also important to keep your data safe, so that it cannot be accessed by third parties. Moreover, the importance of protecting your participants means you must ensure that they will not suffer any physical and mental consequences during or after their participation. You shouldn’t embarrass them, frighten them, or offend them. If your participants represent vulnerable groups (children, the elderly, disabled, etc.), you need to provide them with special care during research.

Importantly, your participants should always be informed that they can withdraw from the research at any point. This can be done either during their participation (such as during an interview or a questionnaire) or after their participation. In the latter case, participants should be able to contact you and ask for their data to be destroyed.

Finally, you always need to debrief your participants at the end of the study. This is especially important when you have “deceived” your participants by not telling them the true purpose of your research in advance (so as to remove bias). You can debrief your participants either face-to-face or through providing a typed debriefing form.

Step 10: Consider your level of studies and discipline

If you’re an undergraduate student, your primary research will usually rely on qualitative or quantitative methodology, rather than on mixed methodology. When doing qualitative research, you will use interviews more often than observations, focus groups, or case studies. You may even get help from your supervisor to craft your interview questions.

When doing quantitative research, you may rely on the full range of methodologies (descriptive, correlational, experimental, and quasi-experimental), but your study will be simple and straightforward. Your sample size won’t be too high, you won’t need to calculate your sample size in advance, you will use only a few measures, and you will use simpler statistical analyses. The main goal of your undergraduate research project is to help you learn the basics of research.

Graduate studies demand more involvement with a research project. If you’re a graduate student, you need to think critically and decide on the best way to answer your research question. Thus, you should consider all the primary research procedures that were mentioned in this guide. You can use a qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methodology.

If doing qualitative research, you need to select the most suitable method, craft your measures, and show an in-depth understanding of thematic analysis (or other similar methods). If doing quantitative research, you need to design your study well, calculate your sample size in advance, recruit a high number of participants, test multiple hypotheses, and rely on more complex statistical analyses. The main goal of your graduate research project is to help you learn more advanced methods of research.

The final thing that you need to know about doing primary research is that certain research methods are more commonly used in some disciplines than in others.

Qualitative research is mostly used in the social sciences, and slightly less in natural and formal (mathematical) sciences. Because of their frequent reliance on qualitative research, social sciences are often called “soft sciences” (which doesn’t make them easier disciplines!)

Observations are used in ethnology and cultural anthropology, but also in sociology, psychology, education, human geography, and communication studies; interviews are used in all disciplines that favour qualitative research; focus groups are used in library and information sciences, social sciences, business studies, and usability engineering; and case studies are used in administrative science, social work, clinical science, education, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and political science.

Quantitative research is favoured in all social sciences (although a little less in geography and anthropology) and it forms the basis of all natural and formal (mathematical) sciences (which is why they are called “hard sciences” – which doesn’t mean they are harder disciplines!). Regardless of the discipline, you need to be familiar with all basic quantitative methods (descriptive, correlational, experimental, and quasi-experimental). These are regarded as cornerstones of science, especially when such methods seek to establish causality.

Finally, mixed research is most favoured within the social sciences, although natural and formal sciences also benefit from it.

Decide on the type of data

Decide on methodology

Be aware of strengths and limitations of your methodology

Select a specific primary research method

Select participants

Select measures

Select analyses

Understand procedure

Think about ethics

Consider your level of study and discipline

^ Jump to top

How to do your dissertation secondary research in 4 steps

Navigating tutorials with your dissertation supervisor, planning a dissertation: the dos and don’ts.

• dissertation help
• dissertation primary research
• dissertation research
• dissertation tips
• study skills

Writing Services

• Essay Plans
• Critical Reviews
• Literature Reviews
• Presentations
• Dissertation Title Creation
• Dissertation Proposals
• Dissertation Chapters
• PhD Proposals
• Journal Publication
• CV Writing Service
• Business Proofreading Services

Editing Services

• Proofreading Service
• Editing Service
• Academic Editing Service

Additional Services

• Marking Services
• Consultation Calls
• Personal Statements
• Tutoring Services

Our Company

• Frequently Asked Questions
• Become a Writer

Terms & Policies

• Fair Use Policy
• Policy for Students in England
• Privacy Policy
• Terms & Conditions
• Editing Service Examples
• [email protected]
• Contact Form

Payment Methods

Cryptocurrency payments.

Finding Primary Research Articles in the Sciences: Home

• Advanced Search-Databases
• Primary vs. Secondary
• Analyzing a Primary Research Article
• MLA, APA, and Chicago Style

This guide goes over how to find and analyze primary research articles in the sciences (e.g. nutrition, health sciences and nursing, biology, chemistry, physics, sociology, psychology). In addition, the guide explains how to tell the difference between a primary source and a secondary source in scientific subject areas.

If you are looking for how to find primary sources in the humanities and social sciences, such as direct experience accounts in newspapers, diaries, artwork and so forth, please see   Finding Primary Sources in the Humanities and Social Sciences . 

Recommended Databases

To get started, choose one of the databases below.  Once you log in, enter your search terms to start looking for primary articles. 

• Link to all Polk State College Library databases

Login Required

You must log in to use library databases and eBooks. When prompted to log in, enter your Passport credentials. 

If you have trouble, try  resetting your Passport pin , sending an email to  [email protected] ,  or calling the Help Desk at 863.292.3652 . 

You can also get help from Ask a Librarian . 

Search Tips

Keep your search terms simple.

• No need to type full sentences into the database search box.  Limit your search to 2-3 words.
• There is no need to type "research article" into the search box.

Use the "Advanced Search" feature of the database.

• This will allow you to limit your search to only peer reviewed articles or a certain time frame (for example: 2013 or later).
• Click the red tab above for tips on advanced search strategies .

Re-read the assignment guidelines often

• Does this article satisfy the scope of the assignment (e.g. a study focused on nutrition)?
• Does it meet the criteria for the assignment (e.g. an original research article)?

Not finding what you are looking for?

• Ask a Librarian!

Search and Find a Primary Research Article

Are you looking for a primary research journal article if so, that is an article that reports on the results of an original research study conducted by the authors themselves. .

You can use the library's databases to search for primary research articles.  A research article will almost always be published in a peer-reviewed journal. Therefore, it is a good idea to limit your results to peer-reviewed articles. Click on the  Advanced Search-Databases tab at the top of this guide for instructions. 

The following is _not_ primary research:

Review articles are studies that arrive at conclusions after looking over other studies. Therefore, review articles are not  primary (think "first") research.  There are a variety of review articles, including:

• Literature Reviews
• Systematic Reviews
• Meta-Analyses 
• Scoping Reviews
• Topical Reviews
• A review/assessment of the evidence

Having trouble?  Look for a  method section within the article. If the method section includes the process used to conduct the research, how the data was gathered and analyzed and any limitations or ethical concerns to the study, then it is most likely a primary research article. For example: a research article will describe the number of people (e.g. 175 adults with celiac disease) who participated in the study and who were used to collect data.

If the method section describes how the authors found articles on a topic using search terms or databases , then it is mostly likely a secondary review article and not primary research. If there is no method section, it is not a primary research article.

Other sections in a journal: 

Your search may yield these items, too. You can skip these because they are not full write-ups of research:

• Conference Proceedings 
• Symposium Publications

Example of a primary research article found in the Library's Academic Search Complete database : (these authors conducted an original research study)

• Lumia et al. (2015) Lumia, M., Takkinen, H., Luukkainen, P., Kaila, M., Lehtinen, J. S., Nwaru, B. I., Tuokkola, J., Niemelä, O., Haapala, A., Ilonen, J., Simell, O., Knip, M., Veijola, R., & Virtanen, S. M. (2015). Food consumption and risk of childhood asthma. Pediatric Allergy & Immunology, 26(8), 789–796. https://doi.org/10.1111/pai.12352

Example of a secondary article found in the Library's Academic Search Complete database : (these authors are reviewing the work of other authors)

• Rachmah et al. (2022) Rachmah, Q., Martiana, T., Mulyono, Paskarini, I., Dwiyanti, E., Widajati, N., Ernawati, M., Ardyanto, Y. D., Tualeka, A. R., Haqi, D. N., Arini, S. Y., & Alayyannur, P. A. (2022). The effectiveness of nutrition and health intervention in workplace setting: A systematic review. Journal of Public Health Research, 11(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4081/jphr.2021.2312

How do I know if this article is primary?

You've found an article in the library databases but how do you know if it's primary .

Look for these sections: (terminology may vary)

• abstract  - summarizes paper in one paragraph, states the purpose of the study
• methods  - explaining how the experiment was conducted (note: if the method section discusses how a search was conducted that is _not_ primary research) 
• results  - detailing what happened and providing raw data sets (often as tables or graphs)
• conclusions  - connecting the results with theories and other research
• references  - to previous research or theories that influenced the research

Scan the article you found to see if it includes the sections above. You don't have to read the full article (yet). Look for the clues highlighted in the images below. 

Questions? Use Ask a Librarian

• Next: Advanced Search-Databases >>
• Last Updated: Aug 8, 2024 4:22 PM
• URL: https://libguides.polk.edu/primaryresearch

Polk State College is committed to equal access/equal opportunity in its programs, activities, and employment. For additional information, visit polk.edu/compliance .

200 Research Essay Topics

To prove your writing and academic research skills throughout your education, you’ll be required to write a research essay.

This form of essay writing is highly technical, requiring students to research information on a particular topic and provide an in-depth analysis in the form of an essay.

For example, students might be assigned topics such as ‘ The Invention Of The Bicycle’ or ‘The Effects Of Technology On Children.’ Then, with a research essay, students would be expected to compile their viewpoint on this topic and support it with facts and references throughout the writing.

In addition to facts that provide credible information on the topic, students should also include references to other relevant sources such as books and academic journals. These sources must be cited each time used to make the writer’s viewpoint more credible to the reader.

Even harder than writing this detailed essay is finding a good topic for a research essay. Topics too broad may not allow for a focused argument, while topics too specific may be limiting in credible sources and information.

Fortunately, this guide will provide you with 200 research essay topics perfect for any level of study, as well as helpful tips to structure your research essay, so you get the grade you deserve!

The Rules for Writing a Research Essay

Writing a research essay doesn’t have to be difficult if you follow the rules of the essay. To qualify as a research essay, students should never forget to:

• Cite all quoted and fact-based information with the author’s name or alternative source location. Be sure quoted sources begin and end with quotation marks.
• Use your own words throughout 80% of the research essay and factual statistics, quotes, and other cited sources throughout 20% of the essay.
• Limit the topic to a manageable length according to the parameters of the assignment.
• Paraphrase and summarize researched information, leaving out unnecessary detail to avoid confusing the reader.

The final rule essential to a well-written research essay is that students should pick a topic that they are passionate about when possible. This will make choosing an essay topic easier and make the research and writing of the essay more enjoyable.

How to Write a Research Paper

With a research essay, it is always helpful to outline your ideas in an easy-to-read format as follows to avoid getting stuck during the writing process.

Introduction

The introduction for a research essay serves many purposes. The first is that it set the tone of the entire paper. Therefore, students should focus on crafting an engaging introduction that includes:

• A topic sentence or ‘hook’ that entices the reader and makes them want to continue reading.
• Definitions to key concepts and terms throughout the essay
• Relevant background information necessary for the reader to know before transitioning into the body of the essay
• A thesis statement that provides a roadmap to the essay’s structure in chronological order.

With an introduction that includes all of these components, students are well on their way to writing an informative and engaging essay.

Body Paragraphs

Once the introductory paragraph is complete, students should write body paragraphs that continue the discussion of the topic sentence in chronological order.

Students should use facts and statistics throughout each of these paragraphs while keeping in mind not to overuse or repeat the same information. A well-written body paragraph should follow a structure similar to this format:

• Topic sentence
• Explanation of examples

Be sure to close each paragraph with a transition phrase that wraps up the topic and moves the reader seamlessly into the next section. Examples of transition phrases and words include:

• in conclusion
• as a result
• to summarize
• another take
• on the other hand
• however, there was also

Any of these transition phrases will help move the essay forward without confusing the reader.

The final step in writing a strong research essay is to write a conclusion that provides an extended closing for your paper. This section should be no more than two paragraphs long, summarizing key points from each body paragraph and reiterating the thesis statement.

If the tone, style, and topic of the essay allow for it, students can choose to end their research essay with a thought-provoking question or insight, a general consequence of the information provided, or a rhetorical question for the reader to ponder.

Be sure not to include any new information in the conclusion paragraph, only a recap of what has already been stated or a final word or insight the reader can take with them.

With the basics of research essay writing out of the way, students can now choose any of the following 200 research essay topics from the list below.

Research Essay Topics About Science

• The impact of asteroids on the Earth’s formation
• How crystals form in caves
• The geologic history of the Grand Canyon
• How big is our galaxy?
• What happens to the Earth’s temperature when its tilted side faces away from the sun?
• Who is the father of astrophysics?
• What is the lifecycle of a locust?
• What is the average speed of a hurricane?
• How much damage can lightning cause?
• What is the difference between active and passive solar heating?
• How can we harness energy from ocean currents?
• Was there life on Mars?
• What happens to matter during nuclear fission and fusion reactions?
• Why do volcanoes exist?
• How can mosquitos spread the Zika virus?
• What is the composition of the air on Venus?
• How does a mass spectrometer work?
• What is climate change?
• What is ocean acidification, and why should we care about it?
• How was the microscope invented?

Research Essay Topics About History

• What battle sealed the victory for Union soldiers during the civil war?
• Who was the 32nd president of the United States of America?
• How did the Battle of Plassey change British control in India?
• Which books were banned during China’s cultural revolution?
• What is a V-Day, and why does it matter?
• What caused the collapse of the USSR?
• What was the Cold War?
• What spurred the French Revolution?
• Who was Abraham Lincoln?
• Who were the Luddites?
• What caused World War II?
• When did World War I start, and when did it end?
• Why was Germany involved in WWI?
• How did Genghis Khan shape Eurasia’s history?
• Who are the ancient Sumerians?
• What were the motivations behind the Salem witch trials?
• Was Emperor Constantine responsible for converting Christianity into a state religion, and what was his motivation for doing so?

Research Essay Topics About Math

• How does a calculator calculate?
• How do computers recognize letters and numbers?
• What is the Fibonacci sequence, and why is it significant?
• How does cryptography work?
• What are prime numbers, and how are they used in cryptography?
• What is the golden ratio?
• Is pi an irrational number or a rational one?
• Why are prime numbers important for encryption?
• Who invented calculus?
• What is the fundamental theorem of arithmetic?
• How do quarks affect the structure of atoms?
• How does an induction coil work?
• What is pi, and why is it important in mathematics?
• What are Euler’s equations in math, and why are they significant?
• What is quantum entanglement?
• How do variable stars affect life on Earth?
• How did Pythagoras contribute to math, and why is he important in the field of math?
• What are right triangles significant in geometry?
• How can chaos theory help study populations?
• What are tesseracts?

Research Essay Topics About Fine Art

• Why was art in the late 19th century so controversial?
• Who was David Bowie, and what made him notable?
• Why are Picasso’s paintings significant?
• Why was Greek sculpture unique?
• What is cubism, and how did it change the way people think about art?
• What is feminist art criticism, and what impact has it had?
• What makes a painting successful?
• How did photography change the way people viewed fine art?
• What is postmodernism, and why has it been significant in fine arts today?
• Who were the Fauves, and what made them so unique?
• What are dadaists significant in fine art history today?
• What was surrealism, and why is it important to the fine arts of today?
• How did the Impressionist movement impact the way people view art today?
• Why was impressionism controversial for its time?
• Where did impressionism begin, and how did it impact fine arts today?
• How is a Pollock painting created, and why should we care about them?
• What is the difference between modernism and postmodernism in fine arts?
• What are watercolors, and how have different cultures viewed them throughout time?
• Why should people care about the arts today?
• What are trompe l’oeil paintings, and why are they essential pieces of fine art?
• How has pop art changed the way people view artwork throughout time?
• What is abstract impressionism, and how has it impacted fine arts today?
• What is Van Gogh’s life story?

Research Essay Topics About Technology

• What is a computer?
• What is the difference between a Turing machine and a Von Neumann machine?
• Who was Alan Turing, and why is he significant in technology today?
• What is a linked list, and what makes them important to programming today?
• How does artificial intelligence work, and how has it changed the way we think of computers today?
• What are neural networks, and what role do they play in AI today?
• How did Ada Lovelace contribute to computer science, and why is she important in technology today?
• Who was Grace Hopper, and what were her accomplishments as a woman in STEM?
• What is quantum computing, and how does it work?
• Who was Nikola Tesla, and what were his contributions to the world of science?
• How did Charles Babbage contribute to computer science, and why is he important in technology today?
• Why are passwords critical to protecting computers today?
• What is the Turing test, and what are its implications on artificial intelligence today?
• How did the Turing test influence AI research in computer science?
• How have social media sites impacted technology throughout time?
• Who were the Luddites, and why are they significant in technology today?
• What are the impacts of cybersecurity on computers today?
• What is an optical computer, and what makes them unique in computing today?
• What are the pros and cons of social media sites in technology today?
• What is Moore’s Law, and why does it matter to modern-day computers?
• What is the difference between real-time systems and embedded systems?
• How has technology changed our lives for better or worse?
• How does the cloud work?

Research Essay Topics About Pop Culture

• How did Pokemon change the world of video games?
• What are video game genres, and what impact do they have on society?
• Who was Ralph Baer, and why is he significant in pop culture today?
• What is social gaming, and where is it headed?
• What rock icons from the ’80s had the most impact on pop musicians today?
• Why do we need copyright laws?
• What is dubstep, and why has it been significant in pop culture today?
• What was grunge, and how did it change the way people viewed music?
• Who were the Beastie Boys, and what are their contributions to pop music today?
• What is the difference between pop music and rock music?
• Who were the Kingsmen, and why are they significant in pop culture today?
• Why were the Beatles’ groundbreaking for their time?
• What was punk rock, and how did it change the world of music throughout time?
• Who were the Black Eyed Peas, and how have they impacted pop music today?
• Who was Bob Marley, and what are his contributions to modern-day pop musicians?
• What is a rave, and how has it influenced pop culture throughout time?
• What is a music video, and how does it tie into the music industry today?
• What is famous for creating the first true digital camera in history?
• Why was A.D.I.D.A.S by Korn significant to pop culture today?
• What is nu-metal, and how did it impact pop culture throughout time?
• Who was Lady Gaga, and what are her contributions to pop music today?
• How have hip-hop lyrics changed over time?
• What are the pros and cons of being famous in the age of social media?

Research Essay Topics About Economics & Finance

• What is the importance of GDP in economics?
• What is the importance of inflation in economics?
• What are central banks, and how do they influence economies today?
• How did Keynesian economics impact the global economy throughout time?
• Who was John Maynard Keynes, and why was his theory significant?
• Why is G7 important in global economics today?
• What is the difference between G7 and BRICS?
• What are crypto-economists, and what are their impacts on modern-day economics?
• How has Bitcoin impacted finance throughout time?
• What is the Euro, and why is it an influential factor in global economics today?
• How has economic growth impacted modern-day countries around the world?
• Why was Adam Smith’s theory of “the invisible hand” important to society today?
• What is socialism, and what are its impacts on modern nations around the world?
• Why did China’s economy transition from a centrally-planned economy?
• What is the purpose of central banking, and how has it changed throughout history?
• How did socialism feed into Marxian economics?
• What is a commodity currency, and why does it impact global economics today?
• What is the difference between fiat, commodity, and mixed currency?
• What are the pros and cons of being part of the G20 in modern-day politics?

Research Essay Topics About Health & Fitness

• What is the importance of mental health in today’s society?
• What are some of the causes of mental illness?
• Who was Sigmund Freud, and why is he significant to psychology today?
• Why is smoking bad for one’s health?
• What are the leading causes of heart disease?
• How do cholesterol levels impact health?
• What are the leading causes of cancer today?
• What is an obesity epidemic, and why has it affected society today?
• Why are antibiotics necessary to modern-day medicine?
• How are vaccines made?
• Who was Alexander Fleming?
• What exercises are good for your health?
• What is cardiovascular exercise as a form of training?
• Why are the feet one of the most vital parts of our body?

Research Essay Topics About Politics & Government

• What are the three branches of the US government, and how is each necessary?
• Who was John Locke?
• What are the core principles of capitalism?
• What is anarchism, and how has it impacted politics throughout history?
• What are the pros and cons of being a democratic society?
• How did Karl Marx influence modern-day politics throughout time?
• Who was John Maynard Keynes?
• What are public goods, and how have they impacted economics throughout history?
• When did the Vietnam War begin, and why was it important?
• What are the pros and cons of being part of NATO?
• What is a constitutional democracy? What are its benefits?
• What is the difference between socialism and communism?
• Why was Vladimir Lenin so significant in modern-day politics throughout history?
• What is populism, and why has it impacted politics throughout history?
• How does a bill become a law?
• Where did the Korean War take place, and why was it significant in modern history?
• What are some ways that biased media can influence politics throughout time?
• How does voter turnout impact elections?

Research Topics About Women’s Studies

• Who was Sojourner Truth, and what were her contributions to women’s rights?
• Who was Susan B. Anthony and what are her contributions to women’s rights?
• What is intersectionality?
• What does it mean to be a feminist in today’s society?
• How has technology impacted the lives of modern-day women?
• What are some of the leading causes of sexual assault?
• What is rape culture, and why does it impact society today?
• Who was Simone de Beauvoir, and what are her influences on women’s studies?
• What is the difference between sex and gender?
• How has language impacted feminism throughout time?
• What are some of the leading causes of breast cancer?
• What is homophobia, and why does it impact society today?
• Who was Simone Veil, and what were her contributions to women’s studies?
• What are the leading causes of death for pregnant women in labor?
• How have birth control options impacted society today?
• What is slut-shaming, and how does it affect women in today’s society?
• How have reproductive rights impacted today’s society?
• Who was Mary Wollstonecraft, and what are her contributions to feminism?
• What are some of the leading causes of depression in pregnant women?
• Who was Emmeline Pankhurst, and what were her contributions to women’s rights?
• What does reproductive justice mean?
• Who was Lysistrata, and why is she significant in modern-day feminism?
• What is the pay gap between men and women in different professions?

Any of these 200 research essay topics are perfect for getting students started on their writing assignments. Remember to cite all of your sources and back up any claims with credible facts that will pull the reader to your point of view.

Related Posts

• 110 Extended Essay Topics
• 110 Racism Essay Topics
• 125 Reflective Essay Topics
• 85 Illustration Essay Topics
• 25 College Admission Essay Topics

Categories:

• Essay Samples
• Essay Topics
• Essay Writing Guides

Recent posts:

• 170 Ethics Essay Topics
• 160 Satire Essay Topics
• 160 Rhetorical Essay Topics
• 155 Criminal Justice Essay Topics
• 150 Political Essay Topics
• 145 Classification Essay Topics
• 140 Sociology Essay Topics
• 140 Opinion Essay Topics
• 140 Environmental Essay Topics
• 135 Controversial Essay Topics
• 125 Classification and Division Essay Topics
• 120 Literary Essay Topics
• 100 Profile Essay Topics
• 90 Heart of Darkness Essay Topics
• 80 Holocaust Essay Topics

Testimonials

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Primary Research

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

Note:  This page offers a brief primer on primary research. For more information, see our dedicated set of pages on this topic .

Research isn't limited to finding published material on the Internet or at the library. Many topics you choose to write on may not already have been covered by an abundance of sources and hence may require a different kind of approach to conducting research. This approach involves collecting information directly from the world around you and can include interviews, observations, surveys, and experiments. These strategies are collectively called  primary research.

For example, if you are writing about a problem specific to your school or local community, you may need to conduct primary research. You may be able to find  secondary sources  (such as those found at the library or online) on the more general topic you are pursuing, but may not find specifics on your school or town. To supplement this lack of sources, you can collect data on your own.

For example, Briel wants to research a proposed smoking ban in public establishments in Lafayette, Indiana. Briel begins by going to the library and then searching online. She finds information related to smoking bans in other cities around the United States, but only a few limited articles from the local newspaper on the ban proposed in Lafayette. To supplement this information, she decides to survey twenty local residents to learn what they think of the proposed smoking ban. She also decides to interview two local business owners to learn how they think the ban may affect their businesses. Finally, Briel attends and observes a town hall meeting where the potential ban is discussed.

Many different types of primary research exist. Some common types used in writing classes and beyond include:

• Interviews:  A conversation between two or more people in which one person (the interviewer) asks a series of questions to another person or persons (the interviewee). See also our page on interviewing .
• Surveys and questionnaires:  A process of gathering specific information from people in a systematic way with a set series of questions. Survey questions usually have pre-specified or short responses. See also our introduction to writing surveys .
• Observations:  Careful viewing and documenting of the world around you. See also our page on performing observations .

Primary Research Articles

• Library vs. Google
• Background Reading
• Keyword Searching
• Evaluating Sources
• Citing Sources
• Need more help?

How Can I Find Primary Research Articles?

Many of the recommended databases in this subject guide contain primary research articles (also known as empirical articles or research studies). Search in databases like ScienceDirect  and MEDLINE .

Primary Research Articles: How Will I Know One When I See One?

Primary research articles  to conduct and publish an experiment or research study, an author or team of authors designs an experiment, gathers data, then analyzes the data and discusses the results of the experiment. a published experiment or research study will therefore  look  very different from other types of articles (newspaper stories, magazine articles, essays, etc.) found in our library databases. the following guidelines will help you recognize a primary research article, written by the researchers themselves and published in a scholarly journal., structure of a primary research article typically, a primary research article has the following sections:.

• The author summarizes her article
• The author discusses the general background of her research topic; often, she will present a literature review, that is, summarize what other experts have written on this particular research topic
• The author describes the study she designed and conducted
• The author presents the data she gathered during her experiment
• The author offers ideas about the importance and implications of her research findings, and speculates on future directions that similar research might take
• The author gives a References list of sources she used in her paper

The structure of the article will often be clearly shown with headings: Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion.

A primary research article will almost always contains statistics, numerical data presented in tables. Also, primary research articles are written in very formal, very technical language.

• << Previous: Resources
• Next: Research Tips >>
• Last Updated: Aug 1, 2024 5:09 PM
• URL: https://libguides.umgc.edu/science

Have a language expert improve your writing

Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, generate accurate citations for free.

• Knowledge Base
• Starting the research process
• 10 Research Question Examples to Guide Your Research Project

10 Research Question Examples to Guide your Research Project

Published on October 30, 2022 by Shona McCombes . Revised on October 19, 2023.

The research question is one of the most important parts of your research paper , thesis or dissertation . It’s important to spend some time assessing and refining your question before you get started.

The exact form of your question will depend on a few things, such as the length of your project, the type of research you’re conducting, the topic , and the research problem . However, all research questions should be focused, specific, and relevant to a timely social or scholarly issue.

Once you’ve read our guide on how to write a research question , you can use these examples to craft your own.

Note that the design of your research question can depend on what method you are pursuing. Here are a few options for qualitative, quantitative, and statistical research questions.

Other interesting articles

If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

Methodology

• Sampling methods
• Simple random sampling
• Stratified sampling
• Cluster sampling
• Likert scales
• Reproducibility

 Statistics

• Null hypothesis
• Statistical power
• Probability distribution
• Effect size
• Poisson distribution

Research bias

• Optimism bias
• Cognitive bias
• Implicit bias
• Hawthorne effect
• Anchoring bias
• Explicit bias

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

McCombes, S. (2023, October 19). 10 Research Question Examples to Guide your Research Project. Scribbr. Retrieved September 16, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/research-process/research-question-examples/

Is this article helpful?

Shona McCombes

Other students also liked, writing strong research questions | criteria & examples, how to choose a dissertation topic | 8 steps to follow, evaluating sources | methods & examples, "i thought ai proofreading was useless but..".

I've been using Scribbr for years now and I know it's a service that won't disappoint. It does a good job spotting mistakes”

What Is a Primary Source?

Glossary of Grammatical and Rhetorical Terms - Definition and Examples

Diane Diederich / Getty Images

• An Introduction to Punctuation
• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

In research and academics, a primary source refers to information collected from sources that witnessed or experienced an event firsthand. These can be historical documents , literary texts, artistic works, experiments, journal entries, surveys, and interviews. A primary source, which is very different from a secondary source , is also called primary data.

The Library of Congress defines primary sources as "the raw materials of history—original documents and objects which were created at the time under study," in contrast to secondary sources , which are "accounts or interpretations of events created by someone without firsthand experience," ("Using Primary Sources").

Secondary sources are often meant to describe or analyze a primary source and do not give firsthand accounts; primary sources tend to provide more accurate depictions of history but are much harder to come by.

Characteristics of Primary Sources

There are a couple of factors that can qualify an artifact as a primary source. The chief characteristics of a primary source, according to Natalie Sproull, are: "(1) [B]eing present during the experience, event or time and (2) consequently being close in time with the data. This does not mean that data from primary sources are always the best data."

Sproull then goes on to remind readers that primary sources are not always more reliable than secondary sources. "Data from human sources are subject to many types of distortion because of such factors as selective recall, selective perceptions, and purposeful or nonpurposeful omission or addition of information. Thus data from primary sources are not necessarily accurate data even though they come from firsthand sources," (Sproull 1988).

Original Sources

Primary sources are often called original sources, but this is not the most accurate description because you're not always going to be dealing with original copies of primary artifacts. For this reason, "primary sources" and "original sources" should be considered separate. Here's what the authors of "Undertaking Historical Research in Literacy," from Handbook of Reading Research , have to say about this:

"The distinction also needs to be made between primary and original sources . It is by no means always necessary, and all too often it is not possible, to deal only with original sources. Printed copies of original sources, provided they have been undertaken with scrupulous care (such as the published letters of the Founding Fathers), are usually an acceptable substitute for their handwritten originals." (E. J. Monaghan and D. K. Hartman, "Undertaking Historical Research in Literacy," in Handbook of Reading Research , ed. by P. D. Pearson et al. Erlbaum, 2000)

When to Use Primary Sources

Primary sources tend to be most useful toward the beginning of your research into a topic and at the end of a claim as evidence, as Wayne Booth et al. explain in the following passage. "[Primary sources] provide the 'raw data' that you use first to test the working hypothesis and then as evidence to support your claim . In history, for example, primary sources include documents from the period or person you are studying, objects, maps, even clothing; in literature or philosophy, your main primary source is usually the text you are studying, and your data are the words on the page. In such fields, you can rarely write a research paper  without using primary sources," (Booth et al. 2008).

When to Use Secondary Sources

There is certainly a time and place for secondary sources and many situations in which these point to relevant primary sources. Secondary sources are an excellent place to start. Alison Hoagland and Gray Fitzsimmons write: "By identifying basic facts, such as year of construction, secondary sources can point the researcher to the best primary sources , such as the right tax books. In addition, a careful reading of the bibliography in a secondary source can reveal important sources the researcher might otherwise have missed," (Hoagland and Fitzsimmons 2004).

Finding and Accessing Primary Sources

As you might expect, primary sources can prove difficult to find. To find the best ones, take advantage of resources such as libraries and historical societies. "This one is entirely dependent on the assignment given and your local resources; but when included, always emphasize quality. ... Keep in mind that there are many institutions such as the Library of Congress that make primary source material freely available on the Web," (Kitchens 2012).

Methods of Collecting Primary Data

Sometimes in your research, you'll run into the problem of not being able to track down primary sources at all. When this happens, you'll want to know how to collect your own primary data; Dan O'Hair et all tell you how: "If the information you need is unavailable or hasn't yet been gathered, you'll have to gather it yourself. Four basic methods of collecting primary data are field research, content analysis, survey research, and experiments. Other methods of gathering primary data include historical research, analysis of existing statistics, ... and various forms of direct observation," (O'Hair et al. 2001).

• Booth, Wayne C., et al. The Craft of Research . 3rd ed., University of Chicago Press, 2008.
• Hoagland, Alison, and Gray Fitzsimmons. "History."  Recording Historic Structures. 2nd. ed., John Wiley & Sons, 2004.
• Kitchens, Joel D. Librarians, Historians, and New Opportunities for Discourse: A Guide for Clio's Helpers . ABC-CLIO, 2012.
• Monaghan, E. Jennifer, and Douglas K. Hartman. "Undertaking Historical Research in Literacy." Handbook of Reading Research. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2002.
• O'Hair, Dan, et al. Business Communication: A Framework for Success . South-Western College Pub., 2001.
• Sproull, Natalie L. Handbook of Research Methods: A Guide for Practitioners and Students in the Social Sciences. 2nd ed. Scarecrow Press, 1988.
• "Using Primary Sources." Library of Congress .
• Secondary Sources in Research
• Documentation in Reports and Research Papers
• Primary and Secondary Sources in History
• Definition and Examples of Primary Verbs in English
• What Is an Annotated Bibliography?
• Research in Essays and Reports
• An Introduction to Academic Writing
• Definition and Examples of Science Writing
• Definition and Examples of Interjections in English
• What Is Zimbabwean English
• Definition and Examples of Humorous Essays
• Definition and Examples of Target Domain in Conceptual Metaphors
• Definition and Examples of Explication (Analysis)
• Definition and Examples of Corpora in Linguistics
• What Is the Genitive Case?

• Grades 6-12
• School Leaders

Get 50% off your first box of Home Chef! 🥙

The Big List of Essay Topics for High School (120+ Ideas!)

Ideas to inspire every young writer!

High school students generally do a lot of writing, learning to use language clearly, concisely, and persuasively. When it’s time to choose an essay topic, though, it’s easy to come up blank. If that’s the case, check out this huge round-up of essay topics for high school. You’ll find choices for every subject and writing style.

• Argumentative Essay Topics
• Cause-and-Effect Essay Topics
• Compare-Contrast Essay Topics
• Descriptive Essay Topics
• Expository and Informative Essay Topics
• Humorous Essay Topics

Literary Essay Topics

• Narrative and Personal Essay Topics
• Personal Essay Topics
• Persuasive Essay Topics

Research Essay Topics

Argumentative essay topics for high school.

When writing an argumentative essay, remember to do the research and lay out the facts clearly. Your goal is not necessarily to persuade someone to agree with you, but to encourage your reader to accept your point of view as valid. Here are some possible argumentative topics to try. ( Here are 100 more compelling argumentative essay topics. )

• The most important challenge our country is currently facing is … (e.g., immigration, gun control, economy)
• The government should provide free internet access for every citizen.
• All drugs should be legalized, regulated, and taxed.
• Vaping is less harmful than smoking tobacco.
• The best country in the world is …
• Parents should be punished for their minor children’s crimes.
• Should all students have the ability to attend college for free?
• Should physical education be part of the standard high school curriculum?

WeAreTeachers

• Schools should require recommended vaccines for all students, with very limited exceptions.
• Is it acceptable to use animals for experiments and research?
• Does social media do more harm than good?
• Capital punishment does/does not deter crime.
• What one class should all high schools students be required to take and pass in order to graduate?
• Do we really learn anything from history, or does it just repeat itself over and over?
• Are men and women treated equally?

Cause-and-Effect Essay Topics for High School

A cause-and-effect essay is a type of argumentative essay. Your goal is to show how one specific thing directly influences another specific thing. You’ll likely need to do some research to make your point. Here are some ideas for cause-and-effect essays. ( Get a big list of 100 cause-and-effect essay topics here. )

• Humans are causing accelerated climate change.
• Fast-food restaurants have made human health worse over the decades.
• What caused World War II? (Choose any conflict for this one.)
• Describe the effects social media has on young adults.

• How does playing sports affect people?
• What are the effects of loving to read?
• Being an only/oldest/youngest/middle child makes you …
• What effect does violence in movies or video games have on kids?
• Traveling to new places opens people’s minds to new ideas.
• Racism is caused by …

Compare-Contrast Essay Topics for High School

As the name indicates, in compare-and-contrast essays, writers show the similarities and differences between two things. They combine descriptive writing with analysis, making connections and showing dissimilarities. The following ideas work well for compare-contrast essays. ( Find 80+ compare-contrast essay topics for all ages here. )

• Public and private schools
• Capitalism vs. communism
• Monarchy or democracy
• Dogs vs. cats as pets

• Paper books or e-books
• Two political candidates in a current race
• Going to college vs. starting work full-time
• Working your way through college as you go or taking out student loans
• iPhone or Android
• Instagram vs. Twitter (or choose any other two social media platforms)

Descriptive Essay Topics for High School

Bring on the adjectives! Descriptive writing is all about creating a rich picture for the reader. Take readers on a journey to far-off places, help them understand an experience, or introduce them to a new person. Remember: Show, don’t tell. These topics make excellent descriptive essays.

• Who is the funniest person you know?
• What is your happiest memory?
• Tell about the most inspirational person in your life.
• Write about your favorite place.
• When you were little, what was your favorite thing to do?
• Choose a piece of art or music and explain how it makes you feel.
• What is your earliest memory?

• What’s the best/worst vacation you’ve ever taken?
• Describe your favorite pet.
• What is the most important item in the world to you?
• Give a tour of your bedroom (or another favorite room in your home).
• Describe yourself to someone who has never met you.
• Lay out your perfect day from start to finish.
• Explain what it’s like to move to a new town or start a new school.
• Tell what it would be like to live on the moon.

Expository and Informative Essay Topics for High School

Expository essays set out clear explanations of a particular topic. You might be defining a word or phrase or explaining how something works. Expository or informative essays are based on facts, and while you might explore different points of view, you won’t necessarily say which one is “better” or “right.” Remember: Expository essays educate the reader. Here are some expository and informative essay topics to explore. ( See 70+ expository and informative essay topics here. )

• What makes a good leader?
• Explain why a given school subject (math, history, science, etc.) is important for students to learn.
• What is the “glass ceiling” and how does it affect society?
• Describe how the internet changed the world.
• What does it mean to be a good teacher?

• Explain how we could colonize the moon or another planet.
• Discuss why mental health is just as important as physical health.
• Describe a healthy lifestyle for a teenager.
• Choose an American president and explain how their time in office affected the country.
• What does “financial responsibility” mean?

Humorous Essay Topics for High School

Humorous essays can take on any form, like narrative, persuasive, or expository. You might employ sarcasm or satire, or simply tell a story about a funny person or event. Even though these essay topics are lighthearted, they still take some skill to tackle well. Give these ideas a try.

• What would happen if cats (or any other animal) ruled the world?
• What do newborn babies wish their parents knew?
• Explain the best ways to be annoying on social media.
• Invent a wacky new sport, explain the rules, and describe a game or match.

• Imagine a discussion between two historic figures from very different times, like Cleopatra and Queen Elizabeth I.
• Retell a familiar story in tweets or other social media posts.
• Describe present-day Earth from an alien’s point of view.
• Choose a fictional character and explain why they should be the next president.
• Describe a day when kids are in charge of everything, at school and at home.

Literary essays analyze a piece of writing, like a book or a play. In high school, students usually write literary essays about the works they study in class. These literary essay topic ideas focus on books students often read in high school, but many of them can be tweaked to fit other works as well.

• Discuss the portrayal of women in Shakespeare’s Othello .
• Explore the symbolism used in The Scarlet Letter .
• Explain the importance of dreams in Of Mice and Men .
• Compare and contrast the romantic relationships in Pride and Prejudice .

• Dissect the allegory of Animal Farm and its relation to contemporary events.
• Interpret the author’s take on society and class structure in The Great Gatsby .
• Explore the relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia.
• Discuss whether Shakespeare’s portrayal of young love in Romeo and Juliet is accurate.
• Explain the imagery used in Beowulf .

Narrative and Personal Essay Topics for High School

Think of a narrative essay like telling a story. Use some of the same techniques that you would for a descriptive essay, but be sure you have a beginning, middle, and end. A narrative essay doesn’t necessarily need to be personal, but they often are. Take inspiration from these narrative and personal essay topics.

• Describe a performance or sporting event you took part in.
• Explain the process of cooking and eating your favorite meal.
• Write about meeting your best friend for the first time and how your relationship developed.
• Tell about learning to ride a bike or drive a car.
• Describe a time in your life when you’ve been scared.

• Share the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to you.
• Tell about a time when you overcame a big challenge.
• Tell the story of how you learned an important life lesson.
• Describe a time when you or someone you know experienced prejudice or oppression.
• Explain a family tradition, how it developed, and its importance today.
• What is your favorite holiday? How does your family celebrate it?
• Retell a familiar story from the point of view of a different character.
• Describe a time when you had to make a difficult decision.
• Tell about your proudest moment.

Persuasive Essay Topics for High School

Persuasive essays are similar to argumentative , but they rely less on facts and more on emotion to sway the reader. It’s important to know your audience, so you can anticipate any counterarguments they might make and try to overcome them. Try these topics to persuade someone to come around to your point of view. ( Discover 60 more intriguing persuasive essay topics here. )

• Do you think homework should be required, optional, or not given at all?
• Everyone should be vegetarian or vegan.
• What animal makes the best pet?
• Visit an animal shelter, choose an animal that needs a home, and write an essay persuading someone to adopt that animal.
• Who is the world’s best athlete, present or past?
• Should little kids be allowed to play competitive sports?
• Are professional athletes/musicians/actors overpaid?
• The best music genre is …

• Is democracy the best form of government?
• Is capitalism the best form of economy?
• Students should/should not be able to use their phones during the school day.
• Should schools have dress codes?
• If I could change one school rule, it would be …
• Is year-round school a good idea?

A research essay is a classic high school assignment. These papers require deep research into primary source documents, with lots of supporting facts and evidence that’s properly cited. Research essays can be in any of the styles shown above. Here are some possible topics, across a variety of subjects.

• Which country’s style of government is best for the people who live there?
• Choose a country and analyze its development from founding to present day.
• Describe the causes and effects of a specific war.
• Formulate an ideal economic plan for our country.
• What scientific discovery has had the biggest impact on life today?

• Analyze the way mental health is viewed and treated in this country.
• Explore the ways systemic racism impacts people in all walks of life.
• Defend the importance of teaching music and the arts in public schools.
• Choose one animal from the endangered species list, and propose a realistic plan to protect it.

What are some of your favorite essay topics for high school? Come share your prompts on the WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook .

Plus, check out the ultimate guide to student writing contests .

We Are Teachers

You Might Also Like

100 Thought-Provoking Argumentative Writing Prompts for Kids and Teens

Practice making well-reasoned arguments using research and facts. Continue Reading

Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. 5335 Gate Parkway, Jacksonville, FL 32256

Explore millions of high-quality primary sources and images from around the world, including artworks, maps, photographs, and more.

Explore migration issues through a variety of media types

• Part of Street Art Graphics
• Part of The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Winter 2020)
• Part of Cato Institute (Aug. 3, 2021)
• Part of University of California Press
• Part of Open: Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture
• Part of Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, Vol. 19, No. 1 (Winter 2012)
• Part of R Street Institute (Nov. 1, 2020)
• Part of Leuven University Press
• Part of UN Secretary-General Papers: Ban Ki-moon (2007-2016)
• Part of Perspectives on Terrorism, Vol. 12, No. 4 (August 2018)
• Part of Leveraging Lives: Serbia and Illegal Tunisian Migration to Europe, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (Mar. 1, 2023)
• Part of UCL Press

Harness the power of visual materials—explore more than 3 million images now on JSTOR.

Enhance your scholarly research with underground newspapers, magazines, and journals.

Explore collections in the arts, sciences, and literature from the world’s leading museums, archives, and scholars.

• Research & Education
• For Scholars
• Jefferson Library
• Library Reference

Researching Thomas Jefferson

This guide is designed to provide an overview of the basic sources on Thomas Jefferson.

Primary Sources

Manuscript Collections Published Editions of Jefferson's Papers Other Jefferson Documents (Account Books, Declaration of Independence, etc.) Jefferson's Libraries

Secondary Sources

Manuscript collections.

The original manuscripts of Thomas Jefferson's papers are scattered among more than 900 different repositories. The largest collections reside at the Library of Congress, the University of Virginia, and Massachusetts Historical Society.

Published Editions of Jefferson's Papers

There are several major published editions of Jefferson's papers:

• Washington, H. A. (ed.).  The Writings of Thomas Jefferson .  Washington, D.C.: Taylor & Maury, 1853-54.  9 vols.  
• Ford, Paul Leicester (ed.). The Writings of Thomas Jefferson . New York, London: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1892-99. 10 vols.
• Lipscomb, Andrew A. (ed.). The Writings of Thomas Jefferson. Washington, D.C.: Issued under the auspices of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association of the United States, 1905.
• Boyd, Julian (ed.). The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950-, and Looney, J. Jefferson (ed.). The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004-.

For a more thorough overview of the published editions of Jefferson's papers, see our page on editions of Jefferson's writings .  The Washington, Ford, and Lipscomb-Bergh editions, as well as most volumes of the Princeton edition are collectively searchable in the Jefferson Library's Thomas Jefferson: Papers collection in the Hathi Trust Digital Library.  The Papers of Thomas Jefferson and Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series are considered the definitive editions of Jefferson's papers, and are by far the most comprehensive.  Both are now available online (for a fee) through the University of Virginia Press's Rotunda imprint; a free version (formatted slightly differently) is available through the National Archives' Founders Online project.  Indexes for volumes 27-37 and Retirement Series volumes 1-7 are also freely available online.

Other Jefferson Documents

The following Jefferson documents have also been published, many of them multiple times; the editions considered most definitive are listed here.

Account Books:   Bear, James A., Jr. and Lucia C. Stanton, eds. Jefferson's Memorandum Books : Accounts, With Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767-1826 . Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1997.  2 vols.  The Memorandum Books also contain other information such as wine lists and some weather records.  The original manuscripts of Jefferson's account books are in the Jefferson Papers collections at the University of Virginia, Massachusetts Historical Society, Library of Congress, Huntington Library, and New York Public Library.  The transcriptions have now been made available in Founders Online (free), and in the Papers of Thomas Jefferson Digital Edition (fee-based).

Anas: The Anas are a collective name for a series of memoranda that Jefferson recorded during the 1790s. Although Jefferson himself neither referred to these memoranda as the "Anas" nor kept them together, they have historically been treated as a cohesive group of documents and published together, most notably in Franklin B. Sawvel, (ed.), The Complete Anas of Thomas Jefferson (New York: Round Table Press, 1903).  The Anas were also published in the Washington, Ford and Lipscomb-Bergh editions of Jefferson's writings (see above).  The Princeton Papers of Thomas Jefferson are publishing the Anas documents individually, in chronological order with Jefferson's correspondence.  The first of these documents appears in volume 22, along with an editorial note explaining Princeton's treatment of the Anas. The Anas, along with more than 700 other documents from his tenure as Secretary of State (1790-1793) are available at http://www.jefferson3volumes.org.

Architectural Drawings : Fiske Kimball's Thomas Jefferson, Architect (Boston: Riverside Press, 1916; rep. Da Capo, 1968) contains facsimile images of the drawings at Massachusetts Historical Society, which comprise approximately half of the extant drawings. Frederick Doveton Nichols's Thomas Jefferson's Architectural Drawings (Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1961) provides a listing of all known drawings (approximately 500).

Autobiography: Jefferson's Autobiography has been published in the Washington , Ford and Lipscomb-Bergh editions; the Ford transcription has also been published as a stand-alone volume by the University of Pennsylvania Press, with a new introduction by Michael Zuckerman.  The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series will also be publishing Jefferson's Autobiography in a future volume.  Click here to search for other editions of Jefferson's Autobiography in the Thomas Jefferson Portal.

The "Jefferson Bible": The definitive scholarly edition of Jefferson's two Bible compilations is Adams, Dickinson W., ed. Jefferson's Extracts From the Gospels: "The Philosophy of Jesus" and "The Life and Morals of Jesus." Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983.  Find a copy in a library near you ; or, search for other editions of the "Jefferson Bible" and books and articles about it in the Thomas Jefferson Portal.  See also our Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia articles on the two compilations: " The Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth " and " The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth ."

Declaration of Independence: Boyd, Julian (ed.). The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950-.  Volume 1, pp. 413-433 treats the Declaration comprehensively, including an editorial note and multiple drafts and amended versions of the text.  These editorial notes and document transcriptions may also be viewed in Founders Online .  There are many other excellent published treatments of the Declaration as well, including John Hazelton's Declaration of Independence: Its History (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1906), and Julian Boyd's The Declaration of Independence: The Evolution of the Text as Shown in Facsimiles of Various Drafts by its Author, Thomas Jefferson (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1945); click here to search for other sources on the Declaration in the Thomas Jefferson Portal.

Farm Book: Betts, Edwin Morris, ed. Thomas Jefferson's Farm Book: With Commentary and Relevant Extracts From Other Writings. Charlottesville: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, 1999. View the manuscript online on the Massachusetts Historical Society website ; or, find a copy in a library near you .

Garden Book: Betts, Edwin Morris, ed. Thomas Jefferson's Garden Book, 1766-1824, With Relevant Extracts From His Other Writings. Charlottesville: Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, 1999. View the manuscript online on the Massachusetts Historical Society website ; or, find a copy in a library near you .

Legal Commonplace Book: Jefferson, Thomas. Jefferson's Legal Commonplace Book . Edited by David Thomas Konig, Michael P. Zuckert, Les Harris, and W. Bland Whitley. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. Second Series. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2019.  Find in a library near you .

Literary Commonplace Book: Wilson, Douglas L., ed. Jefferson's Literary Commonplace Book . Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, c1989.  Find in a library near you .

Notes on the State of Virginia:  William Peden, ed., Notes on the State of Virginia.  Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1954. Find in a library near you ; or click here to search the Thomas Jefferson Portal for other editions of Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia .

Parliamentary Manual: Howell, Wilbur Samuel, ed. Jefferson's Parliamentary Writings: "Parliamentary Pocket-Book" and A Manual of Parliamentary Practice. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, c1988.  Click here to search for other editions of Jefferson's Parliamentary Manual in the Thomas Jefferson Portal.

Jefferson's Libraries

Jefferson owned thousands of books throughout his lifetime, and the various incarnations of his library are documented in a number of different lists. For information on Jefferson's libraries, visit the website of our Thomas Jefferson's Libraries Project .

Our online catalog, the Thomas Jefferson Portal , is the most comprehensive source available for bibliographic records representing published and unpublished material on Thomas Jefferson and his world.  For specific reading suggestions by topic, please see our Suggested Reading List .

There is also a wealth of material on hundreds of topics, written by Monticello staff, in our online Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia .

« Back to Reference

« Back to Library Home Page

ADDRESS: 931 Thomas Jefferson Parkway Charlottesville, VA 22902 GENERAL INFORMATION: (434) 984-9800