Glencoe/

Glencoe English/

Choosing and Limiting a Topic P. 126/

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When you plan and write a research report, you must followcertain steps. First, you must choose a general topic. Then youmust limit your topic. When you limit a topic, you make it morespecific. You make sure that you can learn about the wholetopic within the time limits of the assignment. You also makesure that you can write enough about your limited topic in theassigned number of pages.

A. Think about the pairs of topics.

1. Which topic in each pair would make a better limited topic for a short report?

�"DRAFTING/COMPOSINGœ•

Think of two general subjects that you would like to learnmore about. Write a sentence that names each subject.

Think about the general subjects. Make a list of limitedtopics based on those general subjects. Each topic should bespecific enough to cover in a research report of a few pages.

Reread your list of topics. Put a check next to the onethat interests you most.

�"EDITINGœ•

Look at the topic you chose. Think about it carefully. ‰Isyour topic too general? If so, make it more specific.

Now that you have selected and limited a topic, you canstart thinking about what you want to learn from you research.