Choose a geographical backdrop for your essay. For example, if you’re writing a paper about the history of slavery, you can narrow your topic by choosing to research slavery in a specific country. You can narrow it down even further by focusing on a region in that country. For example, instead of the “The History of Slavery,” your topic can become “The History of Slavery in Pennsylvania.”
Give your topic a time span. If you’re writing about economic trends in the United Kingdom, you can choose to focus on how the UK gained power in the 18th century or lost it during the 20th century. You can also revolve your research around historical events such as the Industrial Revolution or World War II.
Focus on how your topic affects a particular social group. For example, if you’re writing about how video game violence affects young minds, choose an age group to study. You may want to target preteens, teenagers or even young adults during your research. You can narrow the topic down further by considering gender and race.
Choose to investigate a certain aspect of your topic. For example, if you’re examining the characters of William Shakespeare’s “Henry V,” you can research the characters from a psychological perspective and explore their motives, or you can view them from a historical perspective and compare them to their real-life counterparts.