Narrowing Your Topic

How we produce our food has changed dramatically in the past 10 years. Factory farms and genetically engineered methods of food production are very controversial: Are these foods the same as those raised on a traditional farm? Are the nutrients in bio-engineered foods the same, better, or worse than the nutrients in organic foods? What are the advantages and disadvantages in this technology? A thesis statement or research question would focus on a particular aspect of the topic.

Below are a few "focus" strategies for narrowing a topic, with examples:

Strategy - Focus on... Example
a specific aspect — nutritional value, economic aspects, pollination 1. Nutritional value of genetically engineered foods vs. organic foods
2. Economic aspects of genetically modified food production
3. "genetic pollution" — the effects of combining pollen from a genetically altered plant to an unmodified plant
a specific time period,
range of years or era 		1. genetically engineered plants since 2000
2. experiments involving genetically altered animals in the 1990s
the effect of a process or phenomenon on something genetic modification of taro plants
bovine growth hormone and the increase of cancer in humans
a geographic location How genetic engineering has effected the agricultural economy in the Puna District on the Big Island
a cause and effect relation
a comparison and contrast of two or more variables		 differences between genetically engineered vs. organically grown produce
Combine two or more of the above The effects of genetic engineering methods on the papaya industry economy on the Big Island in the last 10 years

3.1 Enter your broad topic here:



3.2 Take your broad topic, break it down, and identify 2 to 3 narrow subtopics using strategies outlined above, and enter them here.