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Chapter 3: How to Settle on a Thesis Topic

“A good thesis topic isn’t just interesting. It’s feasible, relevant, and meaningful—to the field, and to you.”

Why This Chapter Matters

Many students believe choosing a thesis topic is about finding a “cool idea.”
But in reality, the best topics are often born from constraints—your time, tools, interests, goals, and the world you’re trying to impact.

This chapter will help you move from a vague interest to a concrete, researchable topic. We’ll break down how to balance feasibility, relevance, and personal alignment—so you can choose a direction that’s both doable and worth doing.

Conceptual Breakdown

🔹 Feasibility: Time, Tools, Cost, and Scope

Before you fall in love with an idea, check its constraints:

  • Time: Can you realistically finish within 6–12 months?
  • Tools: Do you have access to the datasets, frameworks, or equipment?
  • Cost: Are there expensive licenses, APIs, or hardware requirements?
  • Scope: Can the work be broken down into milestones with measurable progress?

✍️ Tip: If your idea requires a drone or quantum GPU and you don’t have one, it’s not feasible—yet.

🔹 Relevance: Impact to Field, Society, or Country

Your topic should matter—somehow. That doesn’t mean it has to be groundbreaking.
But it should:

  • Advance understanding in your field
  • Solve a real problem or inefficiency
  • Contribute to your community, institution, or country
  • Offer new insight, data, or tooling—even if small

Examples: - Improving access to legal aid using AI (social relevance)
- Optimizing model accuracy for local dialects (regional contribution)
- Analyzing outdated government systems (policy impact)

🔹 Personal Growth and Career Alignment

Here’s the overlooked ingredient:
Will this thesis help you grow into the person you want to become?

Ask:

  • Will I learn a skill I want to master?
  • Will this project open doors to the kind of work I want to do after graduation?
  • Will I feel proud to talk about this one year from now?

This alignment will carry you through the long nights.

🔹 From Idea to Topic Statement

Here’s a simple structure to convert vague ideas into actionable research topics:

“I want to explore [field or method] to solve [problem or question] in [context or dataset], using [technique or framework], because [reason it matters].”

Example:

I want to explore NLP techniques to assist legal triage in the Philippines, using GPT-powered chatbots and government data, because legal aid is currently under-resourced and unevenly distributed.

Self-Check Questions

  1. What are the top 3 topics you’re considering? Why those?
  2. For each one, rate 1–5:
  3. Do I care about this?
  4. Is this feasible with my resources?
  5. Can this be framed as a research problem (not just a project)?
  6. Will this help me grow professionally?
  7. Which one scores highest across all?

Try This Exercise

Feasibility Matrix
Create a table with the following headers: | Topic Idea | Required Resources | Potential Barriers | Personal Motivation | Research Gap |

Fill this for each topic you’re considering. The best choice may not be the most exciting—it may be the one that balances all factors.

Researcher’s Compass

You’re not trying to find the perfect topic.
You’re trying to find a good-enough topic that you can finish, learn from, and contribute through.

It’s okay if:

  • It’s been studied before (you’ll offer a new angle or dataset)
  • It’s not flashy (it’s still real, working research)
  • You refine it as you go (all real research evolves)

What matters is this:
You are doing meaningful work that fits your constraints and moves someone’s understanding—even just a little—forward.