Building an Interest Inventory

Have you ever had struggles with finding a topic that interests you?

Often selecting a topic is a struggle, we don’t want to become repetitive by always writing about the same things over and over but at the same time finding something that interests us can be a challenge.

The key is to find something that challenges the way you think as well as questions your reasons and perspectives. A great way we can find something that interests us is by building an interest inventory.

I am going to demonstrate this technique by creating my own interest inventory. There are four general topics, under each topic, I brainstormed a list of words/phrases that came to mind when I thought about what I know and what I would want to know.

Places

1.     South Africa

2.     USA

3.     Beach

4.     My Home

5.     Work

6.     Nature

7.     Soccer Field

8.     Mall

9.     Church

10. School / College

Habits

1.     Fingernail biting

2.     Cursing

3.     Cracking knuckles

4.     Girls playing with their hair

5.     Using words “uhm” and “like” a lot

6.     Talking while eating

7.     Always checking your phone

8.     Rolling eyes when angry or in disagreement

9.     Brushing your teeth

10. Taking a shower

Technologies

1.     Cellphone

2.     Laptop

3.     Motor Vehicles

4.     Internet

5.     Social Networks

6.     Apple

7.     TV

8.     Satellite

9.     Airplane

Controversies

1.     Apartheid

2.     The Civil War

3.     The affects of sport on youth

4.     Christianity vs. religion

5.     Homosexuality

6.     Abortion

7.     Obesity

8.     Illegal immigration

9.     Depression

10.  Racism

Now that you have a list, look for a single item in any coulomb that seems promising while asking yourself these questions. Is there something that raises questions that researches can help answer? Are they potentially interesting questions? Does this item get at something I have always wondered about? Might it open doors to knowledge I think is important, fascinating or relevant to my life?

After I personally did this I discovered that depression was the one that caught my attention hence I selected it.

The next and final part is to create a list of questions, based on the topic you have selected. Since I selected depression, these are the questions I came up with.

1.     What are the causes of depression?

2.     Who does depression affect?

3.     Is there a correlation between depression and other emotion like anger?

4.     What are ways in which people cope with depression?

5.     Do Christians battle with depression?

6.     Can God use depression?

7.     Does depression lead to crimes like those of violence

8.     Can sport help reduce depression

9.     What percentages of Americans suffer with a form of depression?

10. What are the signs of depression?

11. Are there medicines for depression?

12. What are the affects of depression?

AND that is how you build a interest inventory. Now that you have a list of topics and a set of questions, you have a good foundation going forward in your research paper.

I hope you found this blog helpful in sparking creativity and imagination by creating a list of possible research topics as well as questions on a specific topic that challenge the way in which you think, giving you a head start with strong foundation for a research paper.

Love, Serve, Repeat