Choosing a Critical Report Topic：
Consider the following:
- Audience: who and what is the report for?
- Purpose: what do you want them to know?
Your topic will become your ‘research question’.
A strong topic might receive the comments: Topic well focused and intellectually challenging. Choice of topic suggests considerable critical awareness and understanding.
A weak topic might receive this: Topic limited in approach, purely descriptive, lacking an issue based subject OR inappropriately ambitious.
Examples of Problematic Research Questions：
- What is the history of visual effects? （too broad）
Better examples could be:
How has the shift from analogue technology to digital impacted visual effects
Or
Why is the work of Ray Harryhausen still important for filmmakers?
Or
What is the legacy of Douglas Trumbull?
- Should animators be environmentally aware? （ too narrow）
A better example could be:
What impact have animators had on the publics understanding of climate change?
When developing a research question, you need to work out all the different, relevant factors that will inform a convincing analysis. In other words, you need to break your question or topic down into sub-questions. These sub-questions will then help you form the structure of the Thesis.