Often when you think of a topic, you'll start out with a vague idea, like: "women and advertising" or "religion in public schools." These topics are too broad to effectively cover in a single research paper. You could spend your whole life trying to investigate these topics!
One way to narrow your topic into someting more manageable is to state the topic in the form of a question:
"How does the portrayal of women in advertising affect girls' self-image?" or, "should students be permitted to wear religious clothing while attending public schools?"
